Botswana's karakul renaissance - Ministry of Agriculture

GOVERNMENT TO VACCINATE
FOR MANGE DISEASE
Article: Felix Mothatego
Photos: Henry Toto
The government has decided to begin free
treatment of all small stock in Kgalagadi area
for Mange disease or Lephalo in vernacular,
this May.
This was said by the minister of Agriculture
Christiaan De Graaff during Kgotla meeting
with farmers in Hukuntsi and Kang. He said
his ministry reversed the decision to ask
farmers to buy treatment drugs from Livestock
Advisory Center (LAC) or mobile LAC, to treat
their sheep and goats.
The ministry made this move because some
poor farmers could not afford to buy the drugs,
and there was shortage of drugs in LAC around
the country. Government could also not
intervene by offering a free treatment, because
of the financial recession. Hence the desired
goal of reducing the disease could also not be
achieved.
The disease increased and later spread
throughout Kgalagadi district. As a
consequence, the ministry instituted a control
strategy of eliminating the disease in the
district, and to increase public awareness.
Movement of small stock within, into and out
of the district is prohibited, except for direct
slaughter within the district. He said the
success of the strategy depends on farmers’
commitment and cooperation.
He urged them to avail their livestock for
treatment, on the specified treatment days. All
goats and sheep regardless of age would be
treated twice at two weeks interval.
The Deputy Director in the Department of
Veterinary Services Dr. Letlhogile Modisa
said in an interview, that mange is a parasitic
disease. The parasite causes an infestation of
the skin, causing
Irritation or itching in the animal infected. The
mange in Kgalagadi is caused by a parasite
called Sarc optic Mange.
He said not only has it affected this district,
also on the fringes of the neighboring district
they do see some cases. It affects goats and
sheep usually in the months when they have
to crowd together, therefore overcrowding is
one of the predisposing factors for the disease.
He said this disease is normally present in
the population but, once in a while where
overcrowding is common it becomes a bit
beyond the usual occurrence
When an infected animal comes in contact
with those that have not been exposed to the
parasite, it passes the parasite to those not
affected. It resides on the skin of the animals,
feeding on dying skin tissues while causing
loss of hair, and itching in the animals affected.
This animal eventually loses quite significant
amount of hair because of itching, and
scratching against objects.
He said prevention of the disease is by
guarding against overcrowding of the animals,
and by imposing a ban on movement of goats
and sheep from where there are cases. Farmers
however, have to note that transportation of
meat itself does not spread the disease, so
people could transport meat from wherever
they want to their destinations. Dr. Modisa
also said other products such as milk do not
transmit the disease.
He appealed to farmers to try and control this
disease by observing movement protocols,
and round up their small stock to facilitate the
injection of these animals. He said the drug
they would be using has got a withdrawal
period of fourteen days. Therefore, fourteen
days after the injection animals should not
be slaughtered for consumption, although
they understand that this would be an
inconvenience. They also discourage farmers
to try and keep some animals away from
treatment under the pretext that they would
be slaughtered soon, because these goats and
sheep would infect others once the treatment
drug is finished in the system.
He said they would not encourage anybody to
skip treatment for any reason, because there
is no good reason to skip this treatment. Even
those who treated their animals have to bring
them for treatment, because this treatment has
to be done simultaneously in order to wipe
out the parasite. Dr. Modisa said the drug they
are using is not a vaccine but a parasiticide,
and kills a number of parasites in small stock
including internal ones. “So we are killing two
birds with one stone”, he said.
However, there are some other blood parasites
that would not respond to this treatment such
as Heart water and Ana plasma amongst
others. He said when it comes to ecto parasites
such as soft ticks, the treatment would be a
replacement and farmers would not have to
apply other medications. If they happen to
want to do so, they appeal to them to contact
their nearest Veterinary office for advice on the
matter.
He said technically this is not a vaccination;
it is what they call chemoprophylaxis. The
more animals they cover the better because if
they could cover all the goats and sheep, they
anticipate that they would leave no goats and
sheep where the parasite could reside to infect
other animals
May 2010