852 herds of cattle have been slaughtered in Central Province in the quest to stop the spread of the Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) disease.
Provincial Permanent Secretary Milner Mwanakampwe revealed that the said herds of cattle were slaughtered at a named farm to contain the disease from spreading to other farms.
ZANIS reports that Mr Mwanakampwe was speaking when he officially opened the 2024 Provincial Agriculture and Commercial Show held under the theme, “Creating a Competitive Future”, at the Godfrey ‘Ucar’ Chitalu Stadium in Kabwe.
He observed that livestock diseases such as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and CBPP have continued to ravage livestock in the province depriving the farmers of the much-needed draft power, manure, nutrition and income.
He said the department of veterinary services is targeting to vaccinate 590,000 cattle against FMD in the ten districts of the province while 47,551 have already been vaccinated in Mkushi District.
He added that the department is also conducting test and slaughter activity for CBPP disease positive animals where the disease was detected where 852 cattle have been destroyed.
And Mr Mwanakampwe acknowledged that compared to the 2022/2023 season, the expected production of the rain-fed crops for the 2023/2024 season is generally poor.
“All the crops captured have recorded a decrease of the expected production apart from millet, sorghum and burley tobacco which have recorded increases in expected production when compared to last season,” he said.
However, he expressed delight that the province, despite experiencing drought that has adversely affected production, has ranked number one in nine crops among them maize for seed, barley, Irish potatoes, wheat and soya beans.
This is heartbreaking! 852 isn’t a small quantity. I don’t understand why we still employ the same old destructive methods of dealing with animal diseases. Surely, can’t we find other means of dealing with animal diseases? The Western part of central province experienced widespread crop failure, with the slaughter of their animals people are further distressed. When quarantined, animals don’t have the capacity to spread diseases. It’s humans that come into contact with them that do it. Is there anything we can do correctly on our own?
Barbarians… how can you slaughter your friends just because they have malaria? Slaughtering your friends in front of their calfs.
Arrest these murderers please..
I totally agree with Ayatollah. This is an old method of controlling diseases. Quarantine them and treat them. Do we have a compensation mechanism in place? Totally unfair.
Ask the vet experts. All I know is that even in Botswana, all animals with the Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) disease are eliminated and the rest of animals in the region are zoned to stop the spread of the disease.
@Doug, in Zambia just like in the rest of Africa, we like wholesale decisions. Kafue runs from Chiawa to Mwembeshi but just because there’s a misunderstanding in an area that’s less than 1% of the whole area the Minister revokes the whole land agency and all projects are stalled. Can’t he isolate the portion with problems and deal with it? Look at Kenya, Ruto dissolves the entire Cabinet because of a problem in one Ministry! How do you justify such decisions?
Cattle suffering from CPBB usually have a fever, breathe rapidly and are generally depressed. The lungs usually get infected and the animals are likely to develop a cough while breathing at the same time becomes increasingly difficult and painful. The animals also are in pain and to relieve the pain they are experiencing the animals stand with their head extended and elbows turned out. Almost half of the infected animals die within a few weeks of showing symptoms. The other half will recover but then will remain carriers of the infection. It is for this reason that the animals are slaughtered. What the government needs to do is to double its efforts to vaccinate the animals to eradicate the disease as countries like South Africa, Australia and the US have done.
That sounds you when you have a flu or covid, but nobody killed you yet for showing those symptoms.
Oops its CBPP
I am sure number 0 cows are all safe…. hh