Maasai herding cattle. Test of first cattle lung disease vaccine will start on January. [Photo/chazsin.com]
Kenyan researchers will next month start testing Africa's first livestock vaccine against cattle lung disease.Dr Hezron Wesonga from the Kenya Agricultural Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) on Monday said the respiratory disease is highly contagious. The respiratory disease kills 15 percent of infected herds in Northeastern, Rift Valley, Coast and Eastern. It causes pneumonia and enlargement of the lung membranes and can cause death within three days after infection in goats and three weeks in cattle, according to the Star."The current T144 vaccine being used has a protection rate of 30 to 60 percent and animals have to be vaccinated two to three times annually and whenever there is an outbreak," Wesonga said as quoted by the Star.He added that the production of the vaccine is the only sure way of controlling the disease which costs farmers about Sh5 billion losses of milk, meat and annual income.Dr Salome Wanyoike, the Deputy Director of Veterinary services in charge of socio-economic, said the T144 vaccine currently being used causes a post-vaccination reaction.“The new CBPP vaccine has no side effects and does not require cold storage, and this should come as a relief to livestock keepers," Wanyoike said.In 2016, researchers from Kalro and the Directorate of Veterinary Services carried out a national survey for CBPP vaccine and other livestock diseases as a part of a broader study in the Igad region. "Researchers have produced the vaccine in the laboratory, and it is now entering in the phase of testing in animals. Once the vaccine passes the field test, production will be scaled up so that it can be available to farmers at the shortest time possible and at the lowest cost," Wanyoike added.