An outbreak of PPR (peste des petits ruminants) among goats in Tarash upazila of Sirajganj has killed about 40 animals in the past two weeks. With the upazila livestock office's stock of PPR vaccine now exhausted, farmers and households that keep goats are worried.
According to the upazila livestock office, the eight unions and one municipality of Tarash need about 104,000 doses of PPR vaccine for their goats. Only 16,000 doses were in stock, and those have now run out, leaving a large number of goats unvaccinated.
Goat keepers complain that because supplies fall short of demand even during an outbreak, many animals cannot be vaccinated in time. Small farmers and the poorest households are most at risk. Abul Hossain, Moazzem Hossain and Rashida Khatun, who keep goats locally, said animals are falling sick and dying in different parts of the upazila, and fear the disease will spread further unless action is taken quickly.
Many rural families in Tarash keep goats at home for extra income, and for them the animals are a mainstay of their livelihood and savings. For households with little capital, losing goats to the disease is a loss that is hard to recover from.
Farmers and goat keepers have asked for an adequate supply of PPR vaccine without delay, emergency treatment in the affected areas, measures to stop the disease spreading and closer monitoring.
Dr Shariful Islam, the Tarash upazila livestock officer, said the shortage arose because the office received less vaccine than it needed. A request for more has been sent, he said, and vaccination will be stepped up as soon as supplies arrive.
Reporting: Agricare24 desk.
Photo: Afifa Afrin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Agricare24
Comments
(0)