Uganda will soon start manufacturing animal vaccines for foot-and mouth disease and ticks, according to nation’s agriculture minister Mr. Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja. The government has stepped into the vaccine manufacturing following the failure of the private sector to supply vaccines, which they have been contracted for. The spade work for manufacturing vaccines is underway and by December or January next year the vaccines will be made available.
In a hard hitting reference to the private sector, the agriculture minister said the government has spent billions of money to add capacities to the manufacture of vaccines in the country in the private sector. But what turned out were they (private sector) supplying fake vaccines. Recently, the European Union has rejected ship loads of vaccines.
Mentioning that probe into the fake suppliers of vaccines has commenced, the minister said that the police is investigating the scam and the guilty will be brought to books. But at the same time, the government should take utmost care to protect the animal genetic resources since it provides livelihood to millions of people. The minister was speaking during the launch of the Regional Gene Bank for the Animal Genetic Resources for Eastern African at the National Animal Genetic Resources Center and Data bank (NAGRC& DB) at Entebbe, recently.
The Minister stressed that the livestock population of Africa, particularly Uganda is depleting fast and said that in 2017, Uganda had 14.3 million heads of cattle, which included 15.3 million sheep, 4.3 million pigs and 41 million chicken. Most of thse livestock were of indigenous breed, which has resistance power against common diseases. Cross-breeding eroded their numbers, by making them susceptible to many diseases. This he stressed should be prevented. Referring to the factors that adversely affect raising of livestock in the country, he said that population pressure, land scarcity, changes in the production system and climate change are factors which affected the health of the animals. He hoped that the setting up of Inter-Africa Bureau of Animal Resources would help reversing the trend.
The minister said that the launch of the Gene banking, which helps indefinite storage of genetic materials without deterioration for any length of time, will help Africa to preserve the gene of the indigenous livestock, which can resist common diseases. The gene bank will preserve germ plasam-animal genetic resources- of 12 countries including Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia, Comoros, South Sudan and Sudan.
