Experts called in after mass deaths of goats, sheep in Marsabit

Residents have called for thorough scientific research to establish what killed more than 150 goats and sheep in Balessa, Dukana ward, in Marsabit County last week.

The animals are said to have died after drinking water from a neglected dam, renewing calls for chemical analyses to establish whether poisoning could be behind the intermittent mass livestock deaths in the county.

The underground water the county residents use has in the past been found to contain toxins.

Marsabit County’s Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries executive Hussein Ali said the animals could have died from nitrate poisoning.

He added that a team of experts had been dispatched to the area to extract specimens from the carcasses for a postmortem to ascertain the cause of the deaths.

Mr Ali said only after an expert analysis would his department be able to give a comprehensive report on the mass livestock deaths.

The official cautioned livestock farmers across the county against watering their animals at undesignated points.

There have been many cases of mass deaths from nitrate poisoning in North Horr and Laisamis constituencies in the past.

Chalbi desert, where most cases have been reported, is inhabited by nomadic pastoralists who rear sheep, goats and camels.

The worst documented case was in 2000, when more than 7,000 animals died in Kargi, Laisamis Constituency, after drinking water from a borehole.

And in January 2019, mass deaths of camels, cattle, sheep and goats were reported in El Hadi, North Horr Constituency, again after drinking water from a borehole.

Other incidents were reported in Maikona, Kalacha, Dukana and North Horr, which are in the northern and western parts of the desert.

In 2009, the Ministry of Environment formed an inter-ministerial team to investigate the cause of sporadic livestock deaths in the desert.

In its draft report, titled Inter-ministerial Report on the Persistent Water Poisoning Cases in Marsabit District, the team comprising experts from various ministries recommended that communities living in the desert should only use surface water.

Water from boreholes and shallow wells in the region, the report indicated, did not meet safety standards with regard to salinity and sulphates, nitrites and arsenic content.

High nitrite levels in water, the experts cautioned, was the cause of mass deaths of livestock in the county.

Consumption of the toxic substance together with arsenic can trigger cancer in human beings, the report further said.

Mr Ali said after drinking such water, animals tremble, become weak and get dehydrated while pregnant ones miscarry before death.

Samples of water have been collected from boreholes in the county for toxicological analysis.

Clinical examinations of surviving animals and autopsies on dead ones have also been carried out in the past.

Chemical analyses showed the level of nitrates in the water was five to 10 times higher than the WHO-recommended levels of 10 milligrams of nitrate (measured as nitrogen) per litre of drinking of water mg/L in drinking water, while the levels of other normally toxic chemicals like arsenic, selenium, lead and fluoride were within acceptable ranges.

Symptoms of nitrate poisoning include difficulty in breathing, purple membranes, rapid breathing, muscle tremors, weakness, low tolerance to exercise, incoordination, diarrhoea and increased urination.

Last year, Marsabit residents petitioned the High Court, through Kituo Cha Sheria, to compel the government to intervene quickly to save the lives of both people and livestock.