Rinderpest a continuing risk
Rinderpest has been confirmed in cattle near the Ngorongoro Crater and the neighboring Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania. The disease was diagnosed in buffalo and kudu in the Nairobi National Park last October and is thought to have crossed into Tanzania in Maasai cattle herds undertaking unusual migrations as a result of the severe drought. Spread of the disease occurred despite efforts by the Kenyan government, assisted by the Pan African Rinderpest Campaign (PARC) and the FAO, to form a barrier of vaccinated cattle along the Tanzanian border. The disease has been expressed in the mild form, but history shows that this could change without warning into fully virulent rinderpest. Introduction of mild rinderpest into highly mobile populations of pastoral cattle herds affected by drought and accumulations of cattle and wildlife at grazing and watering points recapitulates a situation which has occurred several times this century in Tanzania, generating major epidemics of rinderpest during which the disease evolved from the mild form to a highly virulent one - frank cattle plague with devastating losses. FAO is concerned that every effort should be made to contain and eliminate the latest outbreak by further vaccination of cattle herds south of Ngorongoro and Serengeti and that veterinary services in Kenya, Tanzania and neighbouring countries to the west and south should be vigilant for any signs of disease outbreak. Vaccination costs at least US 50 cents per animal and there are approximately 10 million animals in the affected areas alone, so substantial financial and veterinary resources will have to be mohilized if the disease is to be isolated and eradicated once and for all. M Rweyamamu EMPRESS FAO, Viale delle terme di Caracalla 00100 Rome ITALY
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| Format: | News Item biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
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Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
1997
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/48738 http://collections.infocollections.org/ukedu/en/d/Jcta69e/ |
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