Story by Tendai Munengwa
THE Government has intensified efforts to protect the national herd by rolling out millions of vaccines targeting major livestock diseases, including Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), Newcastle, Rabies and tick-borne infections that threaten cattle, goats and poultry across the country.
The development comes as the country braces for the rainy season, a period often associated with outbreaks of deadly diseases that have previously claimed thousands of cattle.
Chief Director of Veterinary Services, Dr Pious Makaya, confirmed that significant progress has been made in both securing and locally producing vaccines.
“We got over a million vaccines, with over 300 000 produced here to deal with January diseases, we are also producing a million to deal with other tick-borne diseases and Newcastle and rabies, so we are now safe even as we approach the rainy season. Vaccines secured by the government to deal with foot and mouth have also been distributed to hotspots where we vaccinated cattle against outbreaks of FMD,” he said.
The establishment of the Central Veterinary Laboratories in Harare is also paying dividends as local scientists are now able to produce millions of vaccines for Newcastle, Rabies, and January Disease.
“Here in the virology department, we deal with Newcastle vaccines; we manufacture over 25 million annually, which is enough to vaccinate all chicken countries in the event of an outbreak,” technologist in Charge Virology Section, Ms Priscilla Tshabalala said.
The local manufacturing of critical vaccines is good news in the country’s efforts to rebuild the national herd, which is currently estimated to be over 5.8 million cattle.
