Sokoto Have Vaccinated Over 95% Of Livestock Against Anthrax, Other Diseases—Dr. Abdulrahaman
By Ankeli Emmanuel, Sokoto
The Sokoto State Government, through the Ministry of Animal Health and Fishery Development has vaccinated over 95 percent of livestock in the state.
The Director, Veterinary Services of the Ministry, Dr Nasiru Abdulrahaman, made the disclosure while reacting to inquiry from newsmen on the state government preparation to forestall possible incursion of anthrax from nearby Zamfara State.
According to him, the Federal Government about a week ago sent an alert to Sokoto State regarding outbreak of avian influenza in Kano State and anthrax in nearby Zamfara State.
“And we forwarded the alert to the governor, Ahmed Aliyu and without wasting time, action was taken by re-energizing the already existing State Rapid Response Team which is fully ready to attend to any kind of outbreak.
“However, before this notice, Sokoto recorded an outbreak of same anthrax in Danchadi village of Bodinga local government and the
Federal Government gave us some consignment of anthrax vaccine.
“I think about 800,000 doses. And we swiftly started the vaccination exercise about 3 months ago and is still ongoing.
We are using the GPS camera to ensure that those doing the vaccination are doing it at the right place hence we can use the GPS picture to know the actual location that the exercise is been being conducted,” the director said.
Dr Abdulrahaman said, “I believe by what we have done so far, 95% of the livestock in Sokoto state have been vaccinated against any form of disease.”
While noting that Sokoto has about 200 veterinary Doctors, Dr. Abdulrahaman
maintained that some are attached to all the known abattoirs to carry out pre and post slaughter test before certifying any meat fit for human consumption.
He also divulged that the state has over 270 registered poultry farms which are consistently monitor to ensure that all meat processed for such farms are fit for human consumption as well.
Alhaji Abubakar Yabo, the State Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, appealed to people of the state to also compliment government efforts by embracing animal vaccination and improved species of livestock.
Yabo who called on cattle owners in the state to come forward for free artificial insemination, added that, they have used only 250 of the 1000 doses of diary and beef semen donated to the state by Indonesia.
