Zim to produce anthrax vaccine

THE Department of Veterinary Services is working on developing a home-grown anthrax vaccine in the next two years as the country requires between 1,6 million and 2 million doses at any given time.

This comes as 36 cattle have died this season of anthrax and 518 people have contracted the disease in Chipinge, Hurungwe and Gokwe.

Anthrax usually affects livestock like cattle, sheep and goats as well as wild herbivores.

Humans can be infected if they are exposed to animals or contaminated animal products.

When anthrax spores are ingested from contaminated animal products, inhaled or enter the body through skin abrasions or cuts, they can germinate, multiply and produce toxins.

Giving an update on Wednesday, Department of Veterinary Services acting chief director Dr Pious Makaya said there is an outbreak of anthrax in Zambia which originated from the hippos in Kariba and Zambezi basin.

He said the department has mapped 31 anthrax hotspots in the country.

“We have mapped anthrax hotspots in the country and we have 31 hotspot districts out of the 60 districts. These 31 districts are the target of control of anthrax. We also have reports that in these districts, 518 people have been infected but there are no deaths,” said Dr Makaya.

To contain the outbreak, the country has 436 000 doses of vaccines.

“At the moment Zimbabwe has around 436 000 doses of anthrax vaccines which we are already using to vaccinate animals in infected areas. The 436 000 doses came from Botswana and in Gokwe South we have already vaccinated more than 57 000,” he said.

To effectively control anthrax, Zimbabwe requires between 1,6 million and 2 million doses of the anthrax vaccine.

Dr Makaya said there is an urgent need to increase the number of doses.

He said the department of veterinary services in the process of producing its own anthrax vaccine.

“We are at an advanced stage and our scientists are trying to produce the vaccine and what we need is specialised equipment to produce the vaccine,” said Dr Makaya.

He said people in areas where anthrax has been reported remain at risk and called for urgent vaccination efforts and preventive measures to contain the outbreak.

“We have to vaccinate along the interface where livestock, wildlife and humans meet because the anthrax will creep in through the interface as carnivores and scavengers, like lions and hyenas, can eat infected carcases of infected hippos and transmit the disease towards the border of our national parks such as Hwange National Park,” said Dr Makaya.

Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) named Zimbabwe as one of the five top countries to record seasonal outbreaks of anthrax.

World Health Organisation (WHO)

Other countries include Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia.

WHO said the epidemic is spreading in provinces located along the basin of the Zambezi, Kafue and Luangwa rivers, which is an additional problem because these rivers also flow into Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe, Cahora Bassa in Mozambique and Lake Malawi and the risk of anthrax transmission to neighbouring countries is increased.

The livestock sector contributes significantly to the inclusive growth and development of the national economy hence the need to safeguard the livestock health.

Vector-borne diseases, particularly tick-borne diseases, constitute the biggest risk to livestock production and account for over 60 percent of recorded ruminant livestock deaths.

In 2017 alone, the country lost over 55 000 cattle due to tick-borne-related deaths.

The figure swelled to 500 000 cattle deaths by 2020 and this prompted the Government to institute measures to avert the situation and this included increasing its budget towards the fight against the January disease.

Zimbabwe is moving ahead on several fronts to fight tick-borne diseases by building, rebuilding and renovating dip tanks as well as manufacturing vaccines.

More than 4 000 dip tanks have been constructed since 2021, setting the country on course to have sufficient infrastructure required to curb theileriosis and other cattle diseases. The Government intends to construct 5 000 dip tanks by 2025.

A blitz tick-grease programme under the Presidential Inputs Scheme has also been a major boost in the fight against January disease.

The Government is accelerating plans to build the national herd to six million in line with the country’s agricultural growth recovery plan to meet national demand for meat and dairy products as well as the export market. -chronicle..zw