Poor nutrition likely responsible for Essequibo cattle deaths – livestock authority

Essequibo cattle farmer Surendra Sukhdeo may have been able to minimise his losses if he had followed the Guyana Livestock Development Authority’s (GLDA) advice, GINA says.

Nigel Cumberbatch, head of the GLDA said the farmer’s plight stems from a number of issues, mainly poor nutrition as a result of inadequate foraging and mineral deficiency based on the location of the farm.

Cumberbatch also told GINA that the farm which is located in the Boeraserie Conservancy closer to East Bank Essequibo does not have adequate grazing for the number of animals on the farm. He further advised that for every head of cattle there needs to be at least one acre of grass to take the animals through the dry season.

“The problems that this farmer has been experiencing on his farm started in excess of a year ago. As a matter of fact the first report we got would have been sometime around March 2015 at that time we would have indicated that 61 of his animals were suffering from anaemia type symptoms,” Cumberbatch said.

Cumberbatch said the GLDA has also taken precautionary measures to aid the farmer by vaccinating his animals free of cost.

“We would have also vaccinated his animals for rabies because in that location there are a number of bats and that could be a possible cause though we seem to feel strongly that it is more related to the lack of nutrition therein because of the unavailability of grazing material.”

The GLDA chief said that a second team of veterinary and field staff has been dispatched to collect blood and tissue samples to aid in further diagnosis. Cumberbatch is urging farmers to consult the agency for technical advice before proceeding to establish farms since the failure to do so may result in poor farm planning and practices.

“Unless we are part and parcel of the planning these things will happen. We are here to give help we will always be here to do that we have to know what people are planning to do then they will go in and their losses will be tremendous,” Cumberbatch told GINA.