24 Apr 2024

Ensuring the health of livestock involves more than just choosing the correct vaccine. The proper dosage is also crucial, with the weight of the animal playing a significant role in determining the appropriate amount needed to provide effective protection against disease.

Speaking at the Matlapaneng Farmers Association field day recently, Principal Scientific Officer I-Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Kgotso Oteng encouraged farmers to pay attention to doses for vaccines when they treat their livestock.  Mr Oteng said farmers should use weight belt/band to estimate the weight of an animal to estimate the right dosage when treating their livestock.

He said they can also use weigh scales. Mr Oteng also warned that using the same vaccine over and over again can lead to vaccine resistance and therefore called on farmers to use different vaccines.

Principal Technical Officer- Department of Veterinary services, Mr Orata Goboiwang said farmers should have thermometers in their farms for livestock temperature checks for early detection of diseases, particularly heart water.

Mr Goboiwang said through the use of thermometer heart water disease could be easily detected as it usually begins with fever. He said treating ticks as a syndicate is an effective way of controlling ticks.

Letlhakeng District Agricultural Coordinator, Mr Thomas Tadubana cautioned against movement of livestock showing signs of sickness to avoid spreading diseases.

Mr Tadubana also urged farmers to treat their livestock for ticks before moving them to a new area to prevent tick borne diseases like heart water disease. He said controlling tricks should be a priority but cautioned that eradicating ticks could lead to having a naive livestock, referring to livestock with no immunity to fight disease.

He said it is better to treat heart water and pasteurella at the same time because both diseases may present the same symptoms. ENDS