PS calls for joint livestock vaccination

The national government has decried rising cases of livestock disease  and called for joint vaccination exercises with the counties.

Through the Ministry of Agriculture, the state now wants the drive conducted across the country.

Livestock PS Harry Kimtai said counties are losing millions of shillings annually in their efforts to individually deal with an outbreak mainly foot and mouth disease.

He said that the ministry would summon all CECs so they could plan as one team on how to deal with the outbreak.

He said that the Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Production Institute is working on a vaccine to contain the frequent outbreaks.

Kimtai was speaking in Naivasha during celebrations to mark the end of a 13 year Smallholder Dairy Commercialisation Programme (SDCP).

He termed the livestock sector as very critical adding that plans were underway to increase milk production from the current 630m litres to 1B annually by 2022.

“The livestock sector is expected to contribute 636,000 jobs and support 545 SMEs while the government is keen to make sure that the country is food secure by 2022,” he said.