Thursday, March 28, 2024

Kazungula farmers resist blood collection for CBPP screening

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Experts from the Veterinary department deployed to collect blood samples from cattle in Kazungula in Southern Province for screening of the Contagious Bovine Pleural Pneumonia (CBPP) have met stiff resistance from farmers and have since withdrawn.

Most farmers in the disease ravaged district are said to have refused veterinary
staff to have access to their animals, with some threatening violence.

Southern Province acting Veterinary Officer Dr Charles Maseka confirmed the
development to ZANIS in Choma today but said the department will soon move back to
the area to examine why farmers are resisting the exercise.

Dr Maseka who declined to give further details referring queries to the department’s
Director Dr Peter Sinyangwe in Lusaka however admitted that the farmers’ hostility
was serious in Kazungula.

The department had only managed to collect a paltry of blood samples from the
projected figures.

But sources within the department told ZANIS in Choma that veterinary doctors from
various districts in the province who had been mobilised to contain CBPP in
Kazungula–the epicenter of the disease-had since been withdrawn following hostility
from cattle owners.

They said the farmers’ negative attitude towards the exercise was as a result of
fear of losing their entire herds of cattle in the kraal once some animals tested
positive in the test exercise.

They said most farmers therefore preferred not to allow their animals to be screened
by the department.

Government has since lifted the ban on livestock movement in Southern Province,
except for Livingstone and Kazungula districts were minimal progress has been
recorded in the eradication of CBPP. The move was announced by Agriculture Minister
Ben Kapita last weekend.

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