Agriculture Ministry to rollout nationwide vaccination against FMD

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Agriculture has started a nationwide vaccination of cattle affected by the Foot and Mouth Disease [FMD].

Addressing the press at Uganda Media Centre in Kampala, State Minister for Animal Industry Bright Rwamirama said that the government is going to spend 14 billion Shillings in the exercise that is targeting 51 districts that have been affected by the disease. All the 51, are districts within the cattle corridor, stretching from Karamoja, Teso, Buganda and Ankole.

“The wide range of susceptible animals in both domestic and wild, make the control of FMD difficult. Moreover, vaccination is done in only the domestic animals while the wild animals remain as reserves of infection. It is therefore very important to control FMD in Uganda for our animals and animal products to access lucrative world markets,” Rwamirama said.

The domestic animals that are susceptible to FMD are cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. In the wild, buffaloes, antelopes, and wild pigs are also some of the easy targets of the disease.

Rwamirama said that the government has already given them part of the money which they have used to procure the first batch of the medicine.

He however emphasized that all the medicine was procured by the government and therefore free and compulsory for every cattle owner in the affected districts.

Rwamirama further revealed that his ministry will soon be receiving 200,000 doses of FMD vaccine from Botswana Veterinary Vaccine Production Institute (BVI) out of the 3.4 million doses needed for the vaccination.

“The affected districts are urged to continue adhering to the quarantine restrictions as imposed by the Commissioner Animal Health until the appropriate time when the restrictions will be lifted to allow safe trade,” he added.

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