The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries- MAAIF has dispatched half a million doses of Fotivax, a Foot and Mouth Disease vaccine. The doses will be distributed to 52 districts along the cattle corridor including Kiruhura, Lwengo, Kazo, Isingiro and Lyantonde.
The Minister of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries Frank Tumwebaze says that the doses were procured from the Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Production Institute. He says that the ministry ordered 2.3 million doses, but due to the negative impact of COVID-19 on industrial production and other activities, the institute has supplied two batches so far.
The first batch of 900,000 vaccine doses was delivered last year while the second batch was received this week.
Tumwebaze and the State Minister for Animal Industry, Lt Col Bright Rwamirama flagged off the vaccines on Thursday at the National Animal Disease Diagnostics and Epidemiology Centre-NADDEC in Entebbe.
Rwamirama tasked District Veterinary Officers to ensure that the vaccine doses are administered to farms neighboring those with infected animals.
Tumwebaze warned DVOs against stealing vaccines or selling them to private individuals.
The government in February imposed a total quarantine in five districts after an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease was confirmed, the districts are Gomba, Isingiro, Kazo, Kiruhura and Sembabule.
Other districts like Mbarara, Sheema, Isingiro, Ibanda, Bushenyi and Rubirizi were also put under quarantine to curtail the spread of the disease to other areas.
In April, the government said that it had delivered nine thousand dozes of Foot and Mouth (FMD) vaccines to affected areas two months after it announced a mass vaccination exercise.
The government targets to vaccinate at least 3 million heads of cattle by the end of the exercise, out of the total national cattle stock of 14.8 million Shillings.
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