Jonglei cattle suffer from outbreak of fatal disease

February 22, 2013 (BOR) – An outbreak of a livestock disease in Jonglei’s Twic East county is killing around 30 cows a day in one cattle camp, according to the area’s commissioner, Dau Akoi Jurkuch.

The fatal disease appeared in mid-January in Lith payam [district], in the north of Twic East on the border with Poktap payam of Duk county.

The director general of Jonglei state’s ministry of livestock and fisheries, Geu Wun-Thoony, says the disease has been identified as Hemorrhagic Sectmania (HT).

“This disease seems to be [a] new disease in Jonglei state with symptoms where cattle have fever, swelling at the neck and abdomen of the animals,” Wun-Thoony said.

Over 2,500 cattle in Twic East are reported to have died from the disease in the first two weeks of this month.

Wun-Thoony said that his ministry, in coordination with humanitarian agencies, have started a vaccination programme in areas affected by the outbreak, but only 13,000 of the 95,000 cattle at risk have been vaccinated.

“We received medicines which will treat about 30,000 heads of cattle in both [of the] two counties”, Wun-Thoony said, adding further supplies were due to be dispatched from Juba.

The Twic East commissioner says he is “appealing to [the] ministry of livestock and fisheries and the non-governmental organisations to intervene.”

(ST)