The Gombe State Government has launched the 2019/2020 annual vaccination of one million cattle against contagious livestock diseases across the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the vaccination was launched on Tuesday in Gona, Akko Local Government Area of the state.
The vaccination is against Contagious Bovine Pleuro Pneumonia (CBPP) in Cattle and Pesti des Petits Ruminant (PPP) in Sheep and Goats.
Gov. Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State in his address said that the exercise was to assist the herders while boosting the livestock sub-sector to contribute to the economy of the state and the country.
Yahaya stated that since over 75 per cent of the people in the state were engaged by the agricultural sector, it was important to support the sector to impact on the lives of the people.
While warning against extortion of herders during the exercise, the governor stressed that the vaccination was free.
The Gombe State Commissioner of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, Mr Mohammed Magaji said during the exercise over one million cattle would be vaccinated across the state, adding that such vaccination had not been done since 2016.
Magaji said that the exercise was aimed at controlling Trans-boundary Animal Diseases (TADs) of livestock, adding that the non-vaccination of livestock in the last four years had seen the sub-sector being ravaged by diseases such as CBPP and PPR.
According to him, the livestock sub-sector contributes immensely to the socio-economic development of the state.
“The estimated number of cattle in the state is between 950, 000 and 1, 100, 000,” he said.
