Foot and mouth disease kills many livestock in Nakuru
Children grazing cows at an open grazing field at Kabazi Ward, Subukia, Nakuru County on September 28, 2019. The area has been hit by an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. PHOTO | FRANCIS MUREITHI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
On Saturday, farmers told the Nation that the disease, commonly referred as FMD, is spreading fast in the region.
Dr Maina confirmed that the disease had killed several animals in the area.
Kabazi Ward in Subukia, Nakuru County, is grappling with an outbreak of foot and mouth disease.
The contagious disease, which causes mouth ulcers and foot lesions in cattle, goats and sheep, has killed dozens of animals in the region.
On Saturday, farmers told the Nation that the disease, commonly referred as FMD, is spreading fast in the region.
“There is an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Kabazi and the larger Subukia constituency, it is killing livestock at a high rate,” said Mr Nelson Gitonga, a resident of Kabazi.
COLLECTED SAMPLES
“The Agriculture department should control the outbreak of foot and mouth disease which keeps recurring and killing livestock,” said Mr Gitonga.
Nakuru County Agriculture minister Dr Immaculate Njuthe Maina confirmed that the disease had killed several animals in the area.
She said: “We have already collected samples of the disease which we have taken to government laboratory in Nairobi.”
“The only way to address the current situation is to restrict the movement of animals to prevent the safe animals from having contact with infected ones.
“We suspect the outbreak might have occurred after livestock farmers failed to bring all their animals when we carried out a free vaccination campaign at the beginning of the year,” said Dr Maina.
FREE VACCINATION
Dr Maina said that the influx of animals from neighbouring counties of Laikipia, Baringo and Narok counties has also contributed to the spread of the disease. Nakuru County has been giving free vaccination in a bid to control livestock diseases.
Dr Maina assured livestock farmers that veterinary doctors from the county were on the ground to monitor the situation.
“Veterinary doctors are on the ground to identify areas that need to be quarantined in a bid to control the spread of the disease,” added Dr Maina.
She announced that the county will from next month start receiving drugs from the national government before embarking on the second round of vaccination.
ANTIBIOTICS
“At the moment, we can only advise farmers to manage the sick animals by giving them antibiotics until we get the drugs next month,” she added.
She announced that the county had started vaccinating goats and sheep in Mai Mahiu and Naivasha.
Nakuru County has in the past two years been hit by the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, leading to the death of hundreds of animals in Rongai, Elburgon, Solai and Subukia.
