Government to spend Sh37 billion on vaccination against foot and mouth disease

Nairobi,

Monday, August 28, 2023

KNA by Joseph Ng’ang’a 

The government will in the next five years spend Sh37 billion to vaccinate the country’s cattle population against the highly contagious foot and mouth disease (FMD).

To ensure success of the programme, the government is working with partners who are offering budgetary and technical support.

State Department of Livestock Principal Secretary Jonathan Mueke said that foot and mouth disease has been a long -standing concern for farmers, veterinarians, and policy makers around the world and outbreaks of this disease have the potential to cause significant economic losses, disrupt trade, and devastate livelihoods.  

Mueke explained that these losses arise from closure of livestock markets, death of animals, treatment costs incurred during the treatment of sick animals and loss of production from the sick animals.

Foot-and-mouth disease is an acute, highly contagious viral infection of cloven-footed domestic animals (cattle, sheep, camels, pigs) and wildlife (buffalo, deer).

In a speech read on his behalf by the Director of Veterinary Services Obadiah Njagi during the opening of the FMD symposium at the Kenya Agricultural Research and Livestock Organisation (KARLO) on Monday, Mueke said that the livestock sub-sector in Kenya contributes about 12 per cent of the of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and accounts for about 40 per cent of the Agricultural Gross Domestic product.

“It also contributes over 40 per cent of farm gate value of agricultural commodities whereas within the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) which constitutes 80 per cent of Kenya land mass, it accounts for nearly 90 per cent of the employment opportunities and nearly 95 per cent of family incomes,” the PS said.

He explained that Kenya has a population of 18 million heads of cattle, 26.7 million goats, 18.9 million sheep, 3.2 million camels, 44.6 million poultry, 1.9 million donkeys and 0.5 million pigs. Majority of these are found in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs).

“In 2021, cattle production generated Sh103.5 billion. Overall, the value of livestock production, including livestock products, was measured at Sh161.6 billion (around 1.3 billion U.S. dollars),” said the PS.

Mueke said that the sector is faced with a myriad of challenges which included severe drought, high prevalence of pests and diseases, inferior local breeds, poor rural access roads, poor farmer-processor linkages and lack of affordable credit facilities. Key among the diseases is foot and mouth disease.

“The County governments in collaboration with the National government have continued to apply control measures for FMD as outlined in the Animal Diseases Act Cap 364 laws of Kenya. However, two major challenges impede FMD control efforts and these are uncontrolled animal movements due to many factors such as drought, cattle rustling and roadside grazing, and failure to respect quarantine requirements,” said Mueke.

The PS added that other challenges in the fight against the disease are very low percentage of vaccination coverage leaving a majority of the animals susceptible to the disease and poor timing of vaccination and the habit of vaccinating animals during rather than before outbreaks are reported.

“The Government through the directorate of veterinary services has taken measures to control the disease and established a national laboratory for the diagnosis of foot and mouth disease at Embakasi and a vaccine production institute (KEVEVAPI) to avail affordable and efficacious vaccines,” said the PS.

While speaking to the press on the sidelines of the symposium, Director Njagi said that the government has prioritized the dairy, beef and leather sectors which all depended on livestock and the biggest threat to the agenda is FMD and that is why they are working hard to tackle the disease.

Njagi said that data from the recent census of livestock indicatde about 18 million cattle and the target is to vaccinate 80 percent of the cattle population and this will address the Foot and mouth disease.

He explained that the most risky regions were the pastoral counties because of the animal movement as they searched for water and pasture.  

“We have had some reported cases of the disease in the country where one farm lost around Sh14.5 million which tells you that foot and mouth is quite an expensive disease to cure,” said Njagi.

He said that they are working with the private sector and other players to see that the vaccine is affordable and available to the farmers.

Njagi said that the current cost of the vaccine is Sh500 per animal which is highly subsidized by the government through the provision of cold chains, transport and veterinary personnel to administer the vaccines.  

Veterinary Inputs Suppliers of Kenya Chairman Wachira Mureithi said that the private sector plays a critical role in the fight against the foot and mouth disease and they needed to work together with the government to ensure success of the vaccination programme.

“We believe that with good coordination between the government and the private sector, we can play a critical role in availing and delivering the vaccines to the farmers and doing the reporting and managing of the disease,” said Mureithi.   

Courtesy ; K. N. A