VET ON CALL: Lessons from Botswana on reviving livestock industry

Veterinary doctors attend the 52nd world veterinary day at Greenhills hotel in Nyeri last month.PHOTO| JOSEPH KANYI |NMG

What you need to know:

  • Last week’s event in Kieni, Nyeri was attended by some vets from Egypt, Sudan, South Africa and Botswana
  • All past Directors of Veterinary Services in Botswana, except the ones of the colonial times, were trained at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Nairobi.

Last week was the time of the year that every veterinary doctor in Kenya looks forward to. This is because veterinary surgeons congregate in one of the eight regions of the country.

The vets, as we are called, meet under the auspices of the Kenya Veterinary Association (KVA) to hold the Annual Scientific Conference, the Annual General Meeting and celebrate the World Veterinary Day (WVD) on the last Saturday of April. On this day, we give free animal health services and advice farmers.

Sleeping sickness
Last week’s event in Kieni, Nyeri was attended by some vets from Egypt, Sudan, South Africa and Botswana, in addition to ourselves.

The Director of Veterinary Services of Botswana, Dr Lethokhile Modisa, was in attendance and he addressed the participants in the closing ceremony.
“I want to confirm to you that Kenya is the reason that Botswana is free of livestock diseases that affect trade in livestock and livestock products internationally,” he said to the shock of the 400 participants.

He explained that Botswana is free of foot and mouth disease in areas where livestock for the European market are raised, the country eradicated diseases like Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) and the devastating tsetse fly that causes sleeping sickness in humans and trypanosomosis in livestock.
Rinderpest has also been eradicated. Other diseases like anthrax, lumpy skin disease and black quarter are kept under strict control through diligent and fail-safe vaccination programmes.

So, where does Kenya fit in the success of Botswana’s livestock disease control programme and trade with the lucrative European market? The answer lies in the training of Botswana’s top veterinary staff and disease control research done in Kenya.

You see, Dr Modisa had played a key role in promoting Botswana’s disease control and eradication programmes even before becoming the Director of Veterinary Services.

He is a graduate of the University of Nairobi at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. In fact, Modisa was my classmate and has remained a good friend. He was speaking in the country he called home for four years between 1984 and 1988 during his undergraduate studies.

He explained to the congregation that all past Directors of Veterinary Services in Botswana, except the ones of the colonial times, were trained at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Nairobi. “If we have been able to use the Kenyan training to eradicate trade critical diseases in our country, then you in Kenya should do the same and we are willing to work with you,” he concluded.

As the Botswana veterinary services chief took his seat, the clap from the audience shook the hall. Calls were made for him to return to give a full lecture on disease control and international trade.

Veterinary medicine graduates

Some members of the Class of 88 veterinary medicine graduates, Modisa’s classmates, had a re-union dinner after his address. Guess what?
In that class was the current Director of Veterinary Services in Kenya, Dr Obadiah Njagi. The running commentary during the dinner was that Kenya’s veterinary training is great, but we must make Kenya’s veterinary practice great like Boswana has done.

With the two Directors of Veterinary Services having graduated from the same class, no benchmarking tours will be needed. Telephone calls and emails will suffice, with possible visits from Botswana to Kenya rather than from Kenya to Botswana.

One very interesting thing was that Botswana used their top veterinarians trained in Kenya, research done in Kenya and disease control programmes designed and started off in Kenya by Kenyans to eradicate diseases and control others.

Botswana Veterinary Service

There were also Kenyan expatriate staff working with the Botswana Veterinary Service. They succeeded by diligently and consistently carrying out vaccination, livestock movement control, strict disease surveillance and implementing lessons learned unrelentingly. In the case of CBPP,

Botswana had its last outbreak in 1995 and was declared free of the disease in 1998. They eradicated the disease through slaughter of all 320,000 sick and exposed cattle followed by compensation of the animal’s owners.

Today, the livestock industry is a key driver and mainstay of the Botswana economy, particularly due to the revenue from the lucrative export market.

Kenya lost its European meat export quarter many years back and should repurpose to regain global meat export status to take advantage of the favourable environment for livestock production that the country naturally enjoys. That way, the livestock industry would greatly contribute to improvement of the livelihoods of Kenyans and achievement of food security in line with the government’s Big Four Agenda and Vision 20130.

What has happened in the Botswana livestock industry can be replicated in Kenya and in the human health sector. These are well documented interventions for disease eradication and control. What is often overlooked in the Kenyan situation is the non-technical component of disease control and eradication.

Rabies Vaccination

This comprises dedication by the technical actors mainly the doctors, public awareness to the farmers and the public, political goodwill and the provision of resources. Research has, for instance, shown that vaccinating 70 per cent of the dog population consistently for three years would eradicate rabies. Kenya’s rabies vaccination is erratic and sporadic, usually in response to outbreaks especially in humans. The disease is estimated to kill 2,000 Kenyans each year.

Trends of the disease between 2002 and 2012 showed an increase of reported cases in dogs, humans and livestock.
I advise owners of dogs, donkeys, cats and horses to ensure they vaccinate all their animals against rabies once per year without fail. As for people, anyone bitten or scratched by an animal should report to a health facility for treatment including post exposure rabies treatment, medically called prost exposure prophylaxis (PEP).

If every Nyumba Kumi cluster ensured all their members vaccinate their animals annually for rabies and all animal bites are reported to health facilities, I believe Kenya would be rabies-free in 3 to 5 years- that is a bankable proposition.

Farmers should also ensure they vaccinate their cattle, sheep and goats against the common diseases of foot and mouth disease every six months and lumpy skin, black quarter and anthrax every year. In my area of practice in Nairobi North, we have been able to put these diseases under very strict control since 1992. We also do not have any outbreaks in all the farms that we service because of the strict, diligent and timely vaccination that we carry out.