Animal diseases: FG begins policy to combat

·        Allays fear of contagious disease

The Federal Government (FG) has begun work to have a National control policy for the effective control and combat of animal diseases and pests in the country just as the fear of reported outbreak of Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) in Bauchi has been allayed with vaccine provision.

This was disclosed by the Chief Veterinary Officer, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) Dr. Alabi, Olaniran, in a chat with Food farm News in Abuja.

Dr. Olaniran told Food Farm News that the Ministry was already working on creating a national control policy, while also updating the existing one, so as to enforce it to control animal diseases and pests, adding that vaccination cannot be ruled out in prevention of disease attacks. Already about 2,000 cows have already been killed and 200 animals infected in Federal capital Territory by CBPP.

He also pointed the issue of limited funding for compensation saying that, “we don’t have that fund for compensation for now, what we are doing is controlling of the disease” adding that if the animals are not well vaccinated and they come down with the disease, it becomes a challenge, as treatment with antibiotics will be required to treat the animals before it get out of hand.

While allaying fear of the farmers about CBPP spread, Dr. Olaniran said that his department has been supporting states with some quantity of vaccines to support their control efforts, stressed the need for enough budgets that would ensure enough availability for effective control through annual vaccination.

Olaniran recalled that Senate President Ahmed Lawan recently supported the vaccination in Yobe state where over one million cattle were vaccinated.