Govt procures more vaccines against lung sickness

RUNDU – Communal farmers in the Musese, Mankumpi, Ncamagoro and Kapako constituencies of Kavango West will soon get doses of the contagious bovine pleuropneumonia vaccines for their cattle.

The contagious CBPP, also known as lung sickness, has been terrorising cattle in the above constituencies since the beginning of the year.

“We have successfully procured the CBPP vaccine from the Botswana Vaccine

Institute. The bulk supply of CBPP vaccines was delivered in Rundu last Friday, 6 May 2022,’’ said ministry spokesperson Jona Musheko.

CBPP was detected on 28 February by farmers in the Ncamagoro and Musese constituencies.

After notifying the authorities when the deaths of cattle were observed as well as noticing the clinical signs of CBPP, vets instituted an immediate outbreak investigation, and recorded 16 deaths and over 20 clinical signs. The lung sickness was thus confirmed on 10 March.

Based on the outbreak, a complete movement ban of live cattle has been imposed on the four mentioned constituencies.

“Vaccination will start from 16 May, which is next Monday.

Our teams in the affected region (Kavango West) are already communicating the vaccination programme to invite farmers to bring their livestock to various vaccination points,’’ Musheko stated.

All affected constituencies will be vaccinated. “Movement restrictions that were put in place as per the Veterinary Public Notification No. 4 of 2022 are still in place, and the public will be informed once such restrictions are reviewed,” he added.

Lungsickness is mainly a disease of cattle and water buffalo caused by Mycoplasma mycoides, sub-species mycoides SC, a type of bacteria that attacks the lungs of susceptible animals. In Africa, lungsickness is known to cause greater losses of cattle than any other disease because it is highly contagious, and with a mortality rate of more than 50%.

Cattle deaths due to lungsickness can be sudden. However, the disease often develops in a chronic form, resulting in subsequent cattle deaths over a period of time. Humans are not susceptible to lungsickness, thus there’s no public health risk.