Newly appointed Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture Mutahi Kagwe has kicked off the much anticipated nationwide livestock vaccination campaign kicked at Kisargei, Segera ward, Laikipia County.
Declaring that the vaccine is made locally and was safe, CS Kagwe reiterated that the exercise is entirely voluntary and will be carried out over the next three years.
He said the objective was vaccination of 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.
He said FMD and PPR 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 KSH 62Billion due to closure of markets, locally and internationally, treatment costs, and the 70% losses through high mortality,’ he said.
While launching the event Kagwe, he was joined by livestock farmers, traders, Laikipia Governor Joshua Irungu, Council of Governors (CoG) Chair, Governor Ahmed Abdillahi (Wajir), Laikipia North legislator Hon. Sarah Korere, Livestock Department CS, Jonathan Mueke, Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) Director Dr. Allan Azegele, Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Production Institute (KEVEVAPI) CEO, Dr. Alex Sabuni, amongst other dignitaries.
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% to 20% 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 over 3million 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.
