Annual cattle vaccinations below target

Lerato Maleke | Friday February 21, 2014 16:15

Assistant Minister Oreeditse Molebatsi said that vaccinations were carried out using departmental resources and personnel.  They were also deployed to control the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in zones six and seven, Molebatsi said.

“The consequence is that livestock is not adequately protected against these diseases,” he said.

Molebatsi added that his ministry is monitoring the situation and will assist whenever there are suspected cases.

A provision has also been made for farmers to collect the vaccine from their district offices and inoculate their cattle, Molebatsi added.

According to Molebatsi, the number of cattle to be vaccinated and those that were actually vaccinated against anthrax (kwatsi) were as follows: In Ghanzi alone cattle to be vaccinated in 2010/2011 were 280,960 whereas only 235,230 were actually vaccinated.  For the year 2011/2012, only 321,617 were to be vaccinated, but only 61,008 were actually vaccinated.  In 2012/2013 cattle expected to be vaccinated were 336,220, while only 124,499 were in fact inoculated.

Still in Ghanzi, cattle vaccinated against quarter evil (serotswana), contagious abortion (pholotso) and rabies (molafo) in the year 2010/2011 were at 115,815, 23,489 and 3,012 respectively. 

In 2011/2012, cattle vaccinated for quarter evil were at 30,498, while 6,077 were vaccinated for contagious abortion and 2,617 were vaccinated for rabies.  In 2012/2013, cattle vaccinated against quarter evil were 60,017, while 13,610 were inoculated against contagious abortion and only 2,459 were vaccinated for rabies.

 For Kgalagadi, the minister stated that the number of cattle vaccinated for anthrax were an expected 182,227 while only 163,793 were vaccinated in 2010/2011. An expected 180,973 were to be vaccinated, but only 162,655 were in fact vaccinated in 2011/2012, and in 2012/2013 the expected number for anthrax vaccination was 18,117 but just 167,896 were vaccinated.

In Kgalagadi again 57,729 got vaccinated for quarter evil in 2010/2011, while 13,889 cattle were vaccinated for contagious abortion and only 2,897 were inoculated against rabies.

In 2011/2012 alone, 58,441 cattle were vaccinated for quarter evil, 16,869 for contagious abortion and 3,068 for rabies while in 2012/2013 cattle vaccinated for quarter evil were 66,150 whereas 16,775 cattle were vaccinated for contagious abortion and 3,845 cattle were vaccinated for rabies.