The government’s ambitious nationwide livestock vaccination drive has kicked off in Laikipia County months after it was opposed due to a number of conspiracy theories.
The vaccination campaign, which hopes to vaccinate at least 22 million cattle and 50 million goats and sheep over the next three years, was clouded with theories with many saying that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is funding it and that the vaccines could change the genetic makeup of livestock, possibly resulting in animals with defects.
Speaking during the launch Thursday, January 30, the Agriculture Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mutahi Kagwe said the exercise is entirely voluntary and will be carried out over the next three years, with the goal of vaccinating 22 million cattle and 23 million sheep, 35 million goats and 4.3 million cattle, with the ultimate goal of eliminating Foot and Mouth Diseases (FMD) in cattle and Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) in sheep.
“These are transboundary animal diseases that affect cattle, sheep and goats causing significant loss in production and productivity of our livestock, threatening food security, food safety, economic losses (up to Sh62Billion in loss of revenue) due to closure of markets (locally and internationally), treatment costs, and losses through high mortality (up to 70 per cent) of animals,” Kagwe said.
FMD and PPR, he noted, are classified as “trade-sensitive” trans boundary animal diseases by The World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), and the government therefore is targeting getting Kenya certified as disease free. This will not only increase the health of the animals, production, quality and population, thereby reversing the current annual economic losses of up to Sh62Billion due to closure of markets, locally and internationally, treatment costs, and the 70 per cent losses through high mortality.
Further, CS Kagwe pointed out that Kenya has signed trade agreements with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the European Union (EU) each with a GDP of USD 850B and 17 trillion Euros respectively. These are lucrative markets which Kenya stands to lose due to the presence of these diseases which the vaccination program seeks to address.
Under the Kenya Kwanza Administration, and through the Bottom-up economic Transformation agenda (BETA), the Government has committed to increasing the contribution of the livestock sector to the GDP from the current 12 per cent to 20 per cent by 2027, and today’s event is the first step toward meeting this goal. The government is implementing the National Strategy for the control and eradication of PPR (2017-2027) and the Risk-Based Strategic Plan for Control of FMD (2019) which were developed in consultation with all relevant stakeholders including County Governments.
However, the disease control measures have so far not been uniformly undertaken in the countries due to the lack of coordinated implementation, which has resulted in failure to effectively control the diseases.
In reassuring on the efficacy of the vaccines, he reiterated that they are wholly produced locally by the Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Production Institute (KEVEVAPI), a parastatal established in 1990. KEVEVAPI is the successor to its predecessor, the Vaccine Production Laboratory (VPL), which has been manufacturing FMD vaccines since 1964 and PPR vaccines since 2006, ensuring the availability of high-quality, safe and effective vaccines for national use and export. Specifically, Fotivax TM is for FMD and PestevaxTM is for PPR.
Last year at least 3 million sheep and goats and over 570,000 cattle were vaccinated against PPR and FMD respectively in Kitui, Embu, Tharaka Nithi and Wajir counties. Laikipia county was chosen as the site for the launch since it is centrally located, has a high population of cattle sheep and goats and encompasses both the dairy herd and the pastoral system. It is expected that a total of about 345,000 cattle and 936,000 sheep and goats will be vaccinated against FMD and PPR in Laikipia County.
“The Ministry appreciates the cooperation and collaboration that has been demonstrated by the county Government in ensuring that the exercise is undertaken successfully Council of Governors and National Government Administration officers for their support in creating awareness and mobilizing all farmers to present their animals for vaccination,” said Kagwe.
