27 Feb 2014

A total of 363 restocking cattle out of the 20 000 purchased died before being handed over to farmers between May 22, 2013 and February 24, 2014.

The Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi said in Parliament that this represented 1.8 per cent mortality. He said they died mostly during months of August to December 2013. Mr Molebatsi said the primary causes of mortality were drought and transport induced stress.

“Under these conditions, animals are predisposed to common diseases and injury and easily succumb,” he said. He said diseases recorded during this stocking exercise included pasteurella, tick bone diseases (babesiosis, theilleriosis and heart water), and some died from foreign bodies in the stomach.

Mr Molebatsi said these mortalities occurred despite the treatment offered by veterinary officials in the holding camps. He said an estimated number of 158 cattle were reported dead by farmers, to veterinary officials after they were handed to farmers.

The deaths were not disaggregated by time, this includes animals that died after 60 days, he said. The assistant minister said the situation was complicated by the fact that some animals have gone astray and farmers usually presume them to be dead and report them as such.

Mr Molebatsi said restocking started at the height of the drought last year and that a large number of animals were malnourished and weak, which predisposed them to diseases. He said the situation was worsened by animals having to travel long distances from points to purchase to holding camps and then to farmers.

Most of the mortalities were attributed to drought and transport related causes and it was not easy to establish exactly how much stock perished and the exact cause of mortality, due to extensive system of farming, he said.

He said in any mass restocking of animals, there are always mortalities as groups of animals from different areas are being moved to unfamiliar territories. “Mortalities due to transport induced stress and diseases are inevitable under these conditions and a threshold of five per cent is usually used as a rough indicator,” he said.

In this regard, he noted that the ministry put all the safeguards to mitigate against mortalities, but the situation was exacerbated by drought and that under these situations the total mortality did not exceed three per cent.

Mr Molebatsi was responding to the Member of Parliament for Gaborone Central, Mr Dumelang Saleshando who had asked the ministry the number of cattle that died before they could be handed over to the farmers after they were purchased for the restocking of zones 6 and 7, as well as the causes of death.

He had also asked about the number of cattle that died within 60 days after being handed over to the farmers. ENDS