25 Mar 2015

North West District councillors have been urged to encourage their electorates to comply with the adopted control measures in the form of vaccination and movement control in order to curb the spread of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD).

The acting Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Fidelis Molao said this during a full council meeting in Maun. He said it had become apparent that among others, the major contributing factor to the outbreaks was farmers’ failure to play their role towards the fight.

He said during the recent vaccination, they discovered other FMD cases and now the numbers had increased to 85 of which 45 cattle did not have last vaccination brand, “these reinforces our earlier findings which indicated low percentages of cattle vaccinated.”

Mr Molao indicated that despite efforts made to contain the disease, there were still some challenges such as water bodies that were freely accessible and some farmers leaved their cattle to wonder freely in search of pasture and water. He said if farmers are not bringing their cattle for vaccination, government efforts in controlling the disease would be unsuccessful.

He revealed that subsequent surveillance carried out from March 10 to 15, 2015 has cumulatively revealed 59 cases and appealed to councillors to encourage farmers at their respective areas to support the interventions in place by bringing more cattle for vaccination.

The Assistant Minister informed councillors that the on-going vaccination campaign overall coverage was not as good as it should be, noting that an average of 85 per cent would be regarded as good.

However, Mr Molao revealed that the area vaccination coverage was about 57 per cent. He said the recent outbreak at Kareng extension area was very unfortunate as the last recorded case in the area was in September 2013 and following long period without any cases.

He emphasised the need for each stakeholder to play its role so that FMD is kept at manageable levels, noting that his ministry would continue to mobilise the necessary resources to fast track vaccination coverage and keep close monitoring.

For their part, some councillors requested government to conduct a thorough assessment to find why FMD outbreak was confirmed at Kareng extension area while there are no buffalos there. They argued that areas such as Shorobe where buffaloes are found had never detected with FMD but cases are found in areas which some are far from the buffalo fence.

They also complained that government is failing to eradicate FMD because of poor maintenance of buffalo fences and boarder fences, noting that the dilapidated fences promote free movement of cattle and buffaloes.

They also questioned the competence of veterinary officers arguing that some had not been trained to do the job hence poor vaccination. Councillors called on government to look for alternative methods to deal with FMD. They said the disease have impoverished the communities as they could not sell their cattle.

Mr Molao admitted that maintenance of buffalo fence is a challenge due to shortage of resources but indicated that efforts are being made to rectify the situation.

He however, urged farmers to look after their cattle, saying in Chobe district, there is free movement of buffaloes but there are no cases of FMD because farmers take care of their cattle. ENDS