Lamu,KENYA:The county government of Lamu together with the national government has kicked off a free vaccination exercise for all livestock in the county.
The exercise targets over 100,000 heads of livestock in total.
The exercise which is fully sponsored by the Regional Pastoral Livelihoods Resilience Project targets to vaccinate over 50,000 heads of cattle against the Contagious Bovine Pleural Pneumonia-CBPP and over 40,000 goats and sheep against the Contagious Caprine Pleural Pneumonia-CCPP.
Addressing journalists at Chalaluma village in Witu Division during the launch of the exercise on Monday,Senior County Vet Gichohi Mathenge said the exercise majorly targets areas occupied by the herder community in the region.
“We are today launching the vaccination exercise which will go on for two weeks.We have already dispatched vets officers to areas like Chalaluma, Bar’goni, Mpeketoni, Lake Amu, Hongwe, Lumshi, Pangani, Pandanguo, Witu and other areas of Lamu West. We will also go as far as Kiunga in Lamu East. These are areas mostly inhabited by pastoralists and herders.Our objective is to have all livestock on Lamu soil vaccinated,”said Mathenge.
He urged cooperate with the officers to ensure success of the exercise which he said will go a long way in ensuring no disease outbreaks for livestock in the county.
“Many at times when we hold such exercises, people don’t turn up with their animals. The exercise is free of charge and I am appealing to all livestock owners to turn up in large numbers so that their animals get vaccinated to prevent infections,” said Mathenge.
