Story by Tendai Munengwa
Government has dispatched a consignment of vaccines to contain the January disease which has ravaged the Midlands Province.
“We have dispatched a delegation from the veterinary services to assess, monitor and provide awareness on the importance of religiously dipping cattle. We have released a variety of vaccines to the affected areas as part of our efforts to contain the disease,” noted the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Dr John Basera.
An Animal Health Act has also been invoked by government where all farmers who fail to dip their cattle in line with the new 5:4:4 policy will face arrest.
“We are calling on all farmers to dip their cattle religiously for the next two years – we are going to invoking the Animal Health Act which stipulates that all farmers who fail to dip their cattle will be arrested.”
Over half a million cattle have been killed in the past few years as a result of the January disease prompting government to introduce the tick-grease programme which managed to reduce the deaths by 37 percent last year.
