The department of Veterinary services in Tana River County has embarked on vaccinating 100,000 cattle and 300,000 sheep and goats against various livestock diseases.
Speaking to the press in his Hola office, the County Director of Veterinary services, Dr. Paul Mwamburi said the one-month exercise started at the beginning of this month adding to date 65 percent of the animals have been vaccinated.
Dr Mwamburi however said the figure is below what they had anticipated attributing the scenario to the movement of animals in search of pasture and water. He said, Tana River has not received enough rainfall for the last eight months and thus livestock farmers were moving from one corner of the County to another with officers carrying out the vaccination exercise finding their homes abandoned.
He said, “Livestock officers reach a home targeting to vaccinate 5,000 livestock, but instead vaccinate 3,000 animals because some have moved to another site in search of grass and water.”
Dr Mwamburi also said, the livestock are vaccinated against diseases such as contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) for cattle, Caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) for goats and sheep and newCastle disease for Chicken.
He said there are three teams undertaking the exercise covering Tana North Sub County, Galole and Tana Delta Sub-Counties respectfully revealing that the exercise is being sponsored by the County government of Tana River and European Union.
By Simon Guruba
