ICRC commences vaccination of 1.3m cattle in Adamawa 

From Umar Dankano,Yola

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has commenced the vaccination of livestock against various diseases in Adamawa state.

Mr.Elisha John, Livestock officer of the committee disclosed the development at the flagg off of the vaccination exercise at Kwanar Lauje community of Gongoshi grazing reserve in Mayo-belwa, stressing that a total of 1.3 million cattle and ruminants have been targeted in the state.

John said this year’s exercise will be conducted for 10,000 households in three local government areas including Mayo-belwa,Jada and Mubi council axis respectively.

He noted that based on last year’s exercise which led to decrease of about 40%, “we want to achieve more this year by targeting 1.3 pastoralists.”

While applauding the large turnout of the pastoralists with their animals for the vaccination, John noted that the communities selected are those mostly with numbers of displaced cattle and small ruminants rearers.

“We are here to kickstart the vaccination targeting 1.3 million animals in Adamawa state,in Jada and Mayo-belwa axis as we intend to cover 800,000 animals while in Mubi axis, we will cover 500,000 animals.

“The objective of the exercise is to protect the livestock asset of both displaced and resident pastoralists, aggro pastoralists and other resident livestock keepers so as to ensure they are protected against these pandemic diseases”.

Declaring the 2022 livestock vaccination open, the permanent secretary, ministry of livestock and Aquaculture development,Engineer Mahmuda Ahmed Mshelia described the support from ICRC as “a commendable effort in assisting pastoralists in the state”.