05 Jan 2020

Efforts by Department of Veterinary Services to vaccinate cattle in areas prone to Foot and Mouth disease (FMD) in Ngamiland district are not yielding expected results as farmers fail to bring animals for vaccination in large numbers due to drought.

The department embarked on a vaccination campaign last month, targeting FMD high risk areas.
Principal Veterinary Officer, Dr Odireleng Thololwane confirmed in an interview that the drought contributed to the low vaccination of animals, despite efforts to inform the farmers on time.

The campaign, he said ran from November 11-29 and out of the 62796 animals targeted, they only managed to vaccinate 18760. Areas targeted, he said were those within the 10km radius from the Southern and Northern buffalo fences, including Sehithwa catchment areas.

He explained that the campaign was aimed at preparing for the rainy season, when there would be a lot of uncontrolled movement, which could result in FMD risk.

In addition, Dr Thololwane said the campaign was critical as it would help them inform the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security on the number of cattle that died due to drought.

The remaining number of animals, he said would guide government when doing plans, noting that not knowing the exact number of lost cattle could result in either under or over preparation.

He stressed the need for farmers to report dead animals to their extension agents, for their ear tags to be removed and cleared from the system.

Dr Thololwane stated that they would consider organising another campaign in areas of high concentration of animals not vaccinated.

Farmers were also encouraged to dispose carcasses in an environmentally safe manner because failure to do could result in possible outbreak of botulism and anthrax.

Dr Thololwane said farmers should report within 14 days when they relocated from one extension/crush to the other for planning purposes.

Meanwhile, the farming community was also urged to exploit other potential beef markets as some did not need the cattle to be quarantined.

He explained that the Department of Veterinary Services’ mandate was not to secure beef markets, but to provide guidance on products compliance.

He said the department strived to provide quality service to farmers and other stakeholders in order to promote sustainable livestock industry through; prevention and control of animal diseases, effective extension service, and provision of veterinary health service.

Dr Thololwane said it was up to farmers to look for available markets and provide the quality needed to satisfy the market. “Farmers need to search for new markets so that we do not overcrowd our quarantine and make it a bottleneck,” he added.

He cited countries such as Mozambique, which had interest in Ngamiland beef, stressing that what was needed was to ensure consistence supply and also meet the requirements.

Furthermore, he revealed that they had approached some stakeholders such as the tourism industry, which had shown interest to buy meat locally at prime prices, as the tourism market in northern Botswana currently sources meat from outside Ngamiland. ENDS