By Godwin Makoho
Zimbabwe has scaled up the fight against Theileriosis disease, better known as the January disease, following the surge in the production of Bolvac vaccine by experts in the Zimbabwe Department of Veterinary Services (DVS).
In the last two years, Zimbabwe has escalated work on the Bolvac vaccine production with an aim to prevent the January disease altogether. Only in 2022, the Central Veterinary Laboratory in Harare manufactured more than 100 000 doses.
To date, about 4 000 cattle have been vaccinated in different parts of the country as the Vet Department targets the January disease hotspots.
January disease is one of the deadly killer diseases responsible for killing a large number of cattle in Zimbabwe, and Goromonzi district, Mashonaland East province is one of the most affected areas.
On Thursday 23 November 2023, the Department of Veterinary Services took the vaccination programme to Goromonzi district, where the DVS officers presided over awareness and subsequent vaccination of local cattle at Mwanza Dip Tank.
The vaccination programme was witnessed by foreign delegates who were in Zimbabwe for the World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week.
The delegates were drawn from the Quadripartite partners consisting of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), in partnership with African Union agencies, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU IBAR).
In her address, deputy director for diagnostics and research in the Department of Veterinary Services, Dr Chenai Majuru encouraged farmers to take care of their cattle and also gave the background to the vaccine as well as the progress on the vaccination blitz.
“Cattle is a source of wealth for farmers hence good care should be a top priority. If we provide good care to the cattle, we will reap better returns and we can use the money to buy other resources.
“Bolvac vaccine was manufacturing in 1994 and in the last two years we upscaled the production of the vaccine. We have had so many loses due to January Disease. A lot of farmers lost most of their cattle, some lost all, so we upscaled the production to try and curb the losses that the farmers were experiencing, she said.
“So far in total we have vaccinated about 4000 cattle and we are going to continue with our vaccination campaigns so that we get all the provinces vaccinated. So far we are concentrating on the hot spots,” said the veterinary doctor.
“I want to emphasize that your cattle should continue dipping as per schedule after this vaccine. I also wish to bring to your attention that after some 6-7 days, you will notice that the cattle may show signs of fever that will disappear within 1-2 days”.
The Bolvac vaccine production is an achievement in line with the Zimbabwe Livestock Growth Plan 2020-2025 which identifies animal health as one of the key intervention areas requiring urgent attention to correctly position the Livestock sector for making meaningful contribution to National Development Strategy 1.
With the coming of Bolvac, Zimbabwe can now proudly produce vaccines against 3 out of the 4 major tick-borne diseases (TBDs) prevalent in the country. The other major tick-borne diseases in Zimbabwe are Anaplasmosis (gallsickness), Babesiosis (redwater) and Heartwater.
Farmers who spoke to Newsreel Zimbabwe expressed gratitude to the government for bringing the vaccine to an area critically affected by the January disease.
“I am really happy that vaccines are being manufactured locally because I lost all 25 cattle inside two years due to the January disease. It is very difficult for me to recover from that loss since the cattle were source of income, drought power and food,” said Mr Nhamo Nyama, a local farmer.
The local headman, Headman Mwanza urged the locals to adhere to the prescriptions given by the DVS especially with regards to dipping of cattle.
“If you don’t bring your cattle for dipping, that is a crime. Even if you say it’s not a crime, it is a crime because the objective is to preserve your wealth which benefits you.
“Your cattle give you milk, drought power, meat so would you have any reason not to take care of your wealth?” Quizzed the headman.
The DVS officers also educated the community on the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), through encouraging religious adherence to prescribed use of medicines and adopting disease prevention methods.
Antimicrobials, which include antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, and antiparasitics, are medicines used to prevent and treat infectious diseases in humans, animals and plants.
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites no longer respond to antimicrobial medicines. As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become difficult or impossible to treat, increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness, disability and death.
