Ministry targets counties in livestock vaccination plan
Livestock Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai speaks in Nakuru on June 7, 2021.
The Livestock department will vaccinate animals across Kenya’s 47 counties from next month, PS Harry Kimtai has said
He noted joint exercise will be a big boost since the current programme does not cover all the 47 counties.
"We're segmenting the counties into various economic blocs so that they can conduct their vaccination jointly, '' said Mr Kimtai during a training of veterinary officers in Nakuru.
The animals will be vaccinated against Rift Valley Fever, rabies, brucellosis and anthrax. The PS said the Covid-19 pandemic affected vaccine production as raw materials to make them could not be shipped into the country since most of the source nations were under tight lockdown.
Livestock diseases
He assured livestock farmers of the government’s commitment to safeguard this critical sector by ensuring there are enough vaccines.
The PS disclosed that lack of coordinated vaccination remains a challenge in the fight against livestock diseases in the country.
The country is still facing serious challenges of livestock disease control due to porous international boundaries, inadequate resources including human and financial resources, poor infrastructure, large wildlife and livestock interface and large prevalence of vectors such as mosquitoes, tsetse flies and ticks among others.
Transboundary animal diseases like foot and mouth disease kill thousands of animals when counties experience an outbreak.
He added: "Every livestock programme must have the component of disease control and that is the only way we shall be able to eradicate several diseases like Rift Valley fever, rabies, brucellosis and anthrax among others that have existed for more than a century."
Vaccination programme
Mr Kimtai said his department faces a lack of adequate supply of foot and mouth disease vaccines from the Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Production Institute in Nairobi.
"We have requested the institute management upscale the production so that the department can conduct uninterrupted vaccination programmes across all the 47 counties," he said.
He said with the easing of the lockdown, the country will now be able to source enough raw material in good time to produce enough vaccines which will be supplied to livestock farmers.
"We're working closely with the devolved units to mobilise farmers across the country to vaccinate their animals," said Kimtai
The livestock sub-sector contributes over 30 per cent of the farm gate value agricultural commodities, about 10 per cent of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and at least 50 per cent of the agricultural GDP.
The sector employs about 50 per cent of the agricultural labour force and accounts for about 30 per cent of meat, milk and other dairy products.
