• County Livestock chief officer Winnie Bore said they had already carried out tests to confirm the disease.
• The disease, spread through the inhalation of airborne droplets from coughing or sneezing animals
Baringo pastoralists are counting losses after hundreds of their goats were killed by contagious caprine pleuropneumonia.
The disease, spread through the inhalation of airborne droplets from coughing or sneezing animals, damages lung tissue making effective respiration difficult and causes the goat to die from lack of oxygen.
County Livestock chief officer Winnie Bore said they had already carried out tests to confirm the disease.
“The condition simply resulted from the cold season due to the heavy rains which have hit the area since April,” Bore said.
Jacob Chemoiwo a goat farmer at Kimalel, Baringo South said he has lost 12 goats, including kids, since July.
“Almost all the remaining ones in the shed are sickly though I have been trying all sorts of medication in vain. I have given up,” Chemoiwo said on Tuesday.
The disease outbreak comes two months ahead of the annual Kimalel goat auction scheduled for December.
Sote Chesang, another farmer said she could not understand how she lost the kids of her two goats.
“I woke up in the morning to find their carcasses lying in the shed with some white foam oozing from their mouths and noses,” Chesang said.
Kimalel chief Reuben Kigen said a majority of farmers had complained of losing their animals.
“There is an urgent need of inspection to ascertain the cause and vaccination to avert more deaths,” Kigen said.
The disease incidence was also reported in the lower parts of Baringo North and Tiaty.
Tiaty farmer Richard Adomeyon and David Pepee said they had lost some animals.
“I lost five mature he-goats which I hoped to sell this December at Kimalel Auction,” Pepee said.
The most affected villages are Chesirimion, Kadingding, Loyamorok, Silale, Chemolingot, Kositey, Chesakam, Chesakaram.
On Monday, Ripkwo MCA Daniel Tuwit said the disease is now threatening the sole source of livelihood for pastoralists.
"The infected goat develops runny noses, watery eyes, mouth become weak and end up lying down," Tuwit said.
Loyamorok MCA Maria Losile said several residents in her ward have also lost their animals.
"The human life-threatening Covid-19 is here and we don’t know which kind of disease again is this one which wants to finish our livestock,” she said.
They urged the Ministry of Agriculture and LIvestock to send veterinary doctors to assess the situation.
Bore said her department has already marked out the affected areas for livestock vaccination from next week,” she said.
The chief officer further noted blue tongue as another emerging livestock killer disease in the area.
She said the county government is committed to dealing with livestock diseases as they come, especially “as we approach the world-famous Kimalel Goat Auction in December”.