The East African Gazette
Kampala
President Yoweri Museveni has approved 10 million vaccinations for Foot and Mouth disease.
The minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries, Frank Tumwebaze said this during the Cabinet meeting held on Monday 5 Feb government approved a policy that requires farmers to be paying for the vaccines.
Tumwebaze said they will ease the vaccination administration, transportation and storage.
Tumwebaze said the decision to control and eradicate the disease was reached at a cabinet meeting with President Yoweri Museveni at State House Entebbe on Monday.
The cabinet also approved a plan by the government to create a revolving fund to enable procurement of sufficient FMD vaccines periodically in the country to facilitate compulsory bi-annual vaccination of the susceptible domestic animal population.
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During the parliamentary business Tumwebaze appealed to district veterinary authorities to ensure strict disease surveillance, timely reporting and transparency with proper accountability for the exercise.
He said the cabinet approved a policy that requires farmers to be paying for the vaccines while the government pays for the cost of the vaccination administration, transportation, and storage.
“The revolving fund will increase the vaccine stocks which have started coming for vaccination of all susceptible domestic animals which is going to be compulsory and proof of vaccination will be a precondition for any farmer to sell any animal or animal products” he explained.
The Foot and Mouth Disease currently in 36 districts and under quarantine has been put to restrict the movement of the animal.
Some of the districts include Kazo, Kiboga, Kibuku, Kiruhura, Kumi, Kyankwanzi, Kyegegwa, Kyotera, Luuka, Lwengo, Lyantonde, Mbarara, Mbarara City, Mityana, Mpigi, Mubende, Nakaseke, Nakasongola, Namisindwa, Ngora, Ntungamo, Rakai, Rwampara and Sembabule. These areas include the cattle corridors.
In the next one or two months, we expect to receive and dispatch 2.3m doses of the vaccine to these affected and susceptible districts for ring vaccination scale-up, he noted.
He explained that quarantines are unpopular and an inconvenience to people’s livelihoods but yet again inevitable as temporary measures to control further spread to alarming and uncontrollable epidemic levels.
The minister said that 44 million animals require vaccination against Foot and Mouth Disease. “This requires an annual vaccine stock of 88 million doses for the biannual vaccination requirement for $2 per dose translating into $176 million.
If the stakeholders can be disciplined and comply with the quarantine protocols, the disease will resolve/be contained in a very short time as we also wait for the vaccines,” he said.
Dr Abed Bwanika MP Kimaanya-Kabonera County said a trained veterinarian, accounting for recurrent FMD outbreaks provision and availability of efficacious vaccines.
When we meet the Minister on Thursday, we want him to address how far NARO has reached in ensuring we produce vaccines in Uganda, he added.The National Research Organisation (NARO) Government has invested a lot of money in innovation and it should have been ready by one to produce vaccines for us. Bwanika said