Free vaccination for Newcastle-affected areas

Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Thursday July 31, 2014 11:50

“Newcastle disease is a viral disease of birds that affects both domestic and wild birds, including ostriches. It is preventable by vaccination. The disease is endemic in Botswana where it circulates among backyard chickens as opposed to commercially reared ones as the former are not regularly vaccinated against the disease,” he explained.

He said although the disease is epidemic, sporadic outbreaks occur when weather conditions are favorable to the virus. He stated that the current outbreak started in the southern district from June and later spread to the South East, Kweneng, Central, Kgatleng and North West districts. He also said there were no reported cases in commercial flocks or wild birds because commercial chickens are regularly vaccinated against the disease.

Molebatsi assured that his ministry is taking precautions to manage the situation. “The control measures in place includes countrywide movement stand-still of all live poultry, to limit the spread of disease. This is being coupled with aggressive information dissemination on newcastle disease vaccination to poultry farmers, particularly backyard chicken farmers,” he said, adding that veterinary staff were conducting continuous surveillance.

He noted that the ministry has decided to offer free vaccination to poultry farmers in affected areas in a bid to control the disease. The vaccine was sourced from local to private animal health practitioners and from suppliers abroad.” Botswana Veterinary Association (BVA) in association has donated 100,000 doses of Newcastle Disease vaccine to the ministry in a bid to curb the outbreak,” he said.

Molebatsi pointed out that they expect the vaccine soon and will inform farmers to visit the nearest veterinary offices for assistance when it arrives. He asserted that the ministry is determined to act expeditious to save the chickens, as he is aware that some of the affected farmers have been assisted through various government programmes.