The disease has killed cattle in Masunda, Ndinaneni and Wedza communal lands. Villagers are calling on government to intervene and buy the vaccines.
Blackleg is a fatal disease, which normally kills livestock within 12 to 48 hours. It is caused by a bacterium called Clostridium chauvoei, which can live in soil for many years and gains entrance to the body of cattle through small punctures in the mucous membrane ofthe digestive tract.
The veterinary department only assists in the provision of vaccines for diseases such as anthrax, while cattle owners are supposed to buy their own vaccines for others such as blackleg.
Zvishavane Veterinary Officer, Patience Nyoni, told The Zimbabwean that they were not providing blackleg drugs, and urged affected villagers to do the best they could to mobilise funds to buy them, adding that they were yet to receive verified figures of cattle that died of blackleg in Zvishavane.
She said it was difficult to get exact figures because not all farmers reported cases. She agreed that it would be prudent for government to extend the mandate of the Veterinary Department to cover diseases such as blackleg, and urged farmers to vaccinate their cattle immediately after the main harvest in March and April.
Post published in: News