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General News of Wednesday, 17 February 2021

Source: thenationonlineng.net

Kano earmarks N83.5m for animal vaccine

Kano State map Kano State map

Kano State government on Tuesday announced it awarded a contract of N83.4 million for the vaccination of animals.

The contract covers the supply of 8,250 vials of Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) vaccines and 20,000 vials of Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) vaccines.

The statewide vaccination programme, commencing in a few weeks will cover 800,000 cattle and about 1 million small ruminants per annum.

The vaccination programme is to be executed through the Agro-Pastoral Development Project (KSADP), Project Communication Specialist, and Ameen K. Yassar announced in a statement on Tuesday.

Yassar said the Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) is a bacterial disease that affects the lungs of cattle while Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) is another highly infectious animal disease affecting domestic and wild small ruminants.

The vaccine contract, awarded to IBM Investment Limited also covers the supply of 70 packs of various inputs and training of inoculators. Yassar said Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje is to oversee the flag-off of the exercise.

He explained that vaccination plays a pivotal role in optimising animals’ capacity to resist diseases to maintain the welfare and productivity of large and small ruminants.

He revealed that animal vaccination has not been conducted in Kano State in the past three years and as a result, many pastoral communities in the state were suffering huge losses of animals.

State Project Coordinator, Malam Ibrahim Garba Muhammed, who signed the contract on behalf of his agency, explained that the move was to prevent thousands of pastoral families in one of Nigeria’s most populous states from losing their livelihoods, food security and employment opportunities.

“We are going to work with the state Ministry of Agriculture to kick- start an annual vaccination programme in Kano because it is evident that deadly cattle and small ruminants’ diseases affect the already vulnerable rural communities by decimating their income, decreasing employment opportunities, and forcing them to migrate in the face of very high risk,” Muhammed said.