Goat plague ruining herders’ livelihoods

The country has had to import the vaccine after the goat and sheep disease spread to Kenya from Sudan due to increased cross-border movement of livestock often occasioned by cattle rustling.

The PS recalled that farmers also imported vaccines from South Africa when the SAT1 (South Africa Type One) strain of the foot and mouth disease broke out in 1999.

However, he promised that the veterinary drugs institute would come up with the vaccine in six months.

Prior to March 2006, Kenya was free of PPR, a highly infectious disease of sheep and goats described by scientists as the most destructive viral disease of small ruminants.

The first case of PPR was reported in Oropoi and Lokichoggio divisions of Turkana District, but the disease has since spread to 16 other districts in the North Rift and North Eastern Province.

The disease has an infection rate of about 50 to 100 per cent with associated death rates of 60 to 80 per cent in affected flocks. Households have lost about half of their entire small ruminants.

This has resulted in reduced household purchasing power, a situation made worse due to imposed quarantines and closure of livestock markets. And the herders therefore cannot sell their animals to get money to buy the already highly-priced food items.

Livestock traders, butchers as well as hides and skins dealers in the affected districts are experiencing hard times given that the prices of sheep and goats have dropped by up to 90 per cent.

The prices of cattle have also dropped as much.

Annually, the disease infects up to 3.6 million goats of which 1.5 million die.

“Since 2006, more than five million sheep and goats have been infected while over two million have died,” said the Livestock permanent secretary, noting that the annual loss attributed to the disease stood at more than Sh1 billion

The current drought in Asals is further fanning the spread of the disease due to the high convergence of animals in the few watering points and pastures.

A report presented to the Cabinet by the parliamentary committee on agriculture, land and environment says that while food shortages are being felt at producer level, the country will experience red meat shortages in the medium and long term.

The report says that many households are coping with the hard times by seeking relief food, turning to the Constituency Development Fund for assistance, burning charcoal and cutting firewood for sale.

Others are consuming wild fruits and tubers, taking one meal in a day and withdrawing children from school.