About 3,800,000 hens in the country need to be vaccinated to protect them from possible bird deseases, Doctor Otto Vianney Muhinda Director of Veterinary Services from Rwanda Agricultral Board has said.
Muhinda says a countrywide hen vaccination is intended to begin early December to fight against the previously neglected poultry diseases so as to minimise losses incurred by farmers..
While speaking to igihe.com in an interview Doctor Muhinda said vaccination aims at increasing productivity of poultry in the country.
“To get better production you have to vaccinate all diseases that affect chickens like new castle disease,” Muhinda has said.
Despite having attained 3,500,000 vaccines, Rwanda Agricultural Board(RAB) still has a deficit of 300, 000 vaccine to the targets vaccination of 3,800,000 hens across the country.
The vaccination exercise will be carried out by Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) in partnership with The African Union Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR).
Previous five years, Newcastle disease is said to have claimed over 1.5 million birds resulting into an est. loss of US$13.6m. Newcastle disease is a contagious bird disease affecting many domestic and wild avian species.
Poultry farmers will for the first time have their birds vaccinated against the disease.
Human exposure to the infected birds can cause mild conjunctivitis and influenza-like symptoms, but otherwise, the Newcastle disease virus (NDV) poses no hazards to human health.
No treatment for NDV exists, but the use of prophylactic vaccines and sanitary measures reduce the likelihood of the possible outbreak.
The initiative is part of the African Union’s move aimed at eradicating neglected diseases in poultry.
Addressing farmers, Dr. Muhinda, said the exercise will be implemented in two phases, targeting mainly commercial famers.
This follows yesterday’s training of poultry farmers from different areas across the country. They were trained on how to maintain and manage a poultry farm including fighting poultry diseases affect productivity.
Christine Nyiransabimana is a citizen of Kicukiro District in Kanombe Sector started hen project in 1997 with 30 hens but now has increased 5000 hens due to proper management.
Nyiransabimana says, raising chicken needs to have passionate and strong dream because it involves a lot of work and attention.
“You need to protect them from coldness, minding about temperature and humidity plus vaccinating them and feeding them almost every time,” Nyiransabimana said.
She says it was a profitable business which has enabled her afford to buy a land, set up a house and manage to pay school fees for her children.
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