Published Date: 2019-10-28 17:21:10
Subject: PRO/AH> Foot & mouth disease - Kenya (02): (NK) cattle, spread, control
Archive Number: 20191028.6750490
FOOT & MOUTH DISEASE - KENYA (02): (NAKURU) CATTLE, SPREAD, CONTROL
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Date: Sat 26 Oct 2019
Source: Nation (Kenya) [edited]
https://www.nation.co.ke/counties/nakuru/Foot-and-mouth-disease-kills-many-livestock-in-Nakuru--/1183314-5326174-bsc4bj/index.html
Kabazi Ward in Subukia, Nakuru County, is grappling with an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. The contagious disease, which causes mouth ulcers and foot lesions in cattle, goats and sheep, has killed dozens of animals in the region.
On [Sat 26 Oct 2019], farmers told the Nation that the disease, commonly referred as FMD, is spreading fast in the region. "There is an outbreak of FMD in Kabazi and the larger Subukia constituency, it is killing livestock at a high rate," said Mr Nelson Gitonga, a resident of Kabazi. "The agriculture department should control the outbreak of FMD which keeps recurring and killing livestock," he said.
Nakuru County agriculture minister Dr Immaculate Njuthe Maina confirmed that the disease had killed several animals in the area. She said: "We have already collected samples of the disease which we have taken to government laboratory in Nairobi. The only way to address the current situation is to restrict the movement of animals to prevent the safe animals from having contact with infected ones. We suspect the outbreak might have occurred after livestock farmers failed to bring all their animals when we carried out a free vaccination campaign at the beginning of the year."
Dr Maina said that the influx of animals from neighbouring counties of Laikipia, Baringo and Narok has also contributed to the spread of the disease. Nakuru County has been giving free vaccination in a bid to control livestock diseases. "Veterinary doctors are on the ground to identify areas that need to be quarantined in a bid to control the spread of the disease," she added.
Dr Maina announced that the county will from next month start receiving drugs from the national government before embarking on the 2nd round of vaccination: "At the moment, we can only advise farmers to manage the sick animals by giving them antibiotics until we get the drugs next month." She announced that the county had started vaccinating goats and sheep in Mai Mahiu and Naivasha.
Nakuru County has in the past 2 years been hit by the outbreak of FMD, leading to the death of hundreds of animals in Rongai, Elburgon, Solai and Subukia.
[byline: Francis Mureithi]
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[The above media source has also been communicated by Mod.SF, who is gratefully acknowledged.
Nakuru County, on the eastern side of Kenya's Rift Valley province, neighbors on its east Nyandarua, a county situated on the western side of the Central province. FMD has recently been reported as spreading in Nyandarua. In case the origin of disease in Nakuru is, as stated by the county's minister of agriculture, counties on its west, it may be that the event in Nakuru preceded the one in Nyandarua. For Kenya's counties, see map at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_showing_Counties_underthe_new_kenyan_constitution..gif.
The FMD virus strain behind the outbreak in Nyandarua was serotyped SAT1, and the event, severely affecting the local cattle, attributed by the authorities to obstacles such as "poor farmer turnout during vaccination campaigns, severe shortage of vaccine, and inadequate allocation of funds for disease control and prevention" (20191015.6728866). The virus strain was, reportedly, seen as of high pathogenicity. The virus strain in Nakuru is yet to be serotyped; it is most likely to be SAT1.
The most recent Kenyan FMDV SAT1 strain submitted to the world reference laboratory at Pirbright was collected from cattle in Nakuru in March 2017; it was typed as serotype SAT1, topotype I. Its genotyping results, published by WRLFMD late Sep 2018, are available at http://www.wrlfmd.org/sites/world/files/WRLFMD-2018-00023-KEN-GTR-O-SAT1_001.pdf. Vaccine matching results indicated poor protection (R1 less than 0.3) by the tested vaccine strain (http://www.wrlfmd.org/sites/world/files/WRLFMD-2018-00023-KEN-GTR-O-SAT1_001.pdf).
Collecting and submitting fresh samples from the current cases for genotyping and vaccine matching tests deserve consideration. - Mod.AS
HealthMap/ProMED map available at:
Nakuru County, Kenya: http://healthmap.org/promed/p/47100]
