Gov’t to deliver FMD vaccine doses next week

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Animal Husbandry will next week start the delivery of foot and mouth disease vaccines to affected districts.

In February, the ministry procured 2.4 million dozes at 13 Billion Shillings for the vaccination of livestock in the most affected districts.

According to the State Minister for Agriculture Bright Rwamirama, the government has received 500,000 doses out of the 1.4 million doses that are expected to arrive this week.

Rwamirama who was meeting the Kiruhura FMD district taskforce on Wednesday attributed the delay of the vaccine to the late verification of the samples collected from different districts affected by Foot and Mouth disease. Some of the animals that will be vaccinated include cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs.

Dr Grace Asiimwe, the Kiruhura District Veterinary Officer said the disease has mostly affected sub counties that missed out on the first phase of vaccination.

Rev Samuel Mugisha, chairperson LC V Kazo asked the government to carry out regular vaccination after six months for two years if the disease is to be wiped out completely.

Peter Taremwa, a farmer from Burunga in Kazo district asked the government to allow people or farmer Cooperative societies to assist in importing the vaccines. He says that government procurement procedures take long which costs the farmers.

The government in February imposed a total quarantine in five districts after an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease was confirmed, the districts are Gomba, Isingiro, Kazo, Kiruhura and Sembabule.

Other districts like Mbarara, Sheema, Isingiro, Ibanda, Bushenyi and Rubirizi were also put under quarantine to curtail the spread of the disease to other areas.

In April, the government said that it had delivered nine thousand dozes of Foot and Mouth (FMD) vaccines to affected areas two months after it announced a mass vaccination exercise.

The government targets to vaccinate at least 3 million heads of cattle by the end of the exercise, out of the total national cattle stock of 14.8 million Shillings.

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