Ramotswa shows poor response to animal fever

MARANYANE NGWANAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Wednesday July 14, 2010 00:00

This disease is new to Botswana. It affects livestock, wildlife and people and it can be fatal. There is no known cure for the disease. Mosquitoes pass the disease on to livestock, which then communicate the germ to humans when they touch fluids like blood and milk from infected animals.

Eating the meat of an infected animal will also affect humans.

Currently, there is no cure for the disease. It does not show symptoms on animals except in females that suffer frequent miscarriages. 

Otherwise, only veterinary testing is the more reliable indicator of whether an animal is infected or not.

One cannot tell by looking at the animal if it has the disease or not.

There is urgent need for swift action to arrest the situation before there are reports of fatalities.

However, the Minister of Agriculture, Christian De Graaff, says that in order to minimise the socio-economic impacts of the disease, the government has restricted the movement of cattle, sheep and goats in and out of the Ramotswa extension area and Seribe, where the disease first broke out.   There is still free movement of livestock though.

The minister also says that movement of cattle, sheep and goats, within, out of and in to Kgatleng District, Good-Hope sub district and Lobatse, Otse, Tlokweng, Gaborone and Mogobane Extension areas for direct slaughter at licensed facilities is not allowed. 

He says that farmers in the affected area are requested to vaccinate their animals using approved vaccines.  Feedlot animals should be vaccinated on arrival, he said. 

The minister says that transiting livestock for rearing through the Kgatleng and Southeast Districts and Goodhope sub district from other parts of the country is allowed under permit after dipping in a mosquito repellent. It is also required that animals being taken to the Gaborone Agricultural Show should be vaccinated at least twice, two weeks apart, with the last vaccination at least 21 days before coming to the show.

De Graaff discourages handling and consumption of any suspect or contaminated material like aborted foetuses, removing retained placenta from aborted animals, milking aborted animals, slaughtering animals that have recently aborted, handling young dead animals, slaughtering animals whose young ones have recently died. 

The public has been advised to cook animal products thoroughly before eating them.  The minister says that countrywide surveillance is continuing, and that they are currently processing tenders to avail the vaccine.

  In an interview, Balete chief's representative, Ambrose Mokgosi, said that there are several measures that have been put in place to control the disease.  He says that movement of livestock in to and out of the region has been restricted. 

'We have arranged with the police to make patrols and check that there is no livestock that is moved in and out of the region without consultation with us or veterinary services,' he said. 

He said that also there are fences that have always been in place to control movement of livestock. However, he said that despite having been sensitised about the disease people still leave gates open allowing free movement of animals.  Sarah Gabathuse, Ramotswa Station Commander, says that the police have put up roadblocks to check vehicles for meat and other products that could be moved in and out of the area.   She says that there is also a stocktheft unit which monitors butcheries on a daily basis to check if owners adhere to the set rule that no livestock should be slaughtered.Butcheries are advised to purchase their meat from Botswana Meat Commission (BMC).  'If there is any slaughtering it should be approved by the veterinary services.  Again, our unit is on the look out for vehicles that may be transporting livestock in and out of the area. 

Random interviews in Ramotswa suggest that not many people are aware of measures to control the spread of the Rift Valley Fever disease.