West Pokot County Government has rolled out a free livestock vaccination exercise of goats and sheep against Petits Des Peste Ruminants (PPR) disease courtesy of United States Agency for International Developmental (USAID) through the Tufts and Florida universities that targets over a million goats and sheep to totally eradicate the disease that has in the past wiped the livestock.
The exercise comes after an assessment for days which revealed that PPR was still on the rise and outbreak in the Karamoja cluster that comprises West Pokot and Turkana Counties among goats and sheep.
The exercise was launched in Pokot North Sub county at Kopulio area where West Pokot Governor John Lonyangapuo said the program aims at eliminating diseases and making the region disease free adding that the program will help residents to stop engaging in cattle rustling activities since the livestock that enter the county from other regions come with various diseases that spread very fast.
Geoffrey Lipale the CEC for Livestock and Pastoral economy County West Pokot county said the move seeks to make the region disease free to enhance quality of meat and milk to boost the market of animals and said that they are targeting to eradicate the PPR disease by the year 2030.
Lipale said that they have so far managed to vaccinate over 80,000 goats for the last six days in Pokatusa, Nakuyen, Atulia and Morwongar in Suam Ward in Kacheliba Pokot North.
