Peste des Petits Ruminants is estimated to wipe out Sh1.7 billion annually from the livestock economy. FILE PHOTO | NMG
The Agriculture ministry is pushing for a Sh6 billion budget to eradicate a deadly animal viral disease ravaging 23 arid and semi-arid counties. Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious disease of small domestic and wild ruminants which is caused by a virus.
It is estimated to wipe out Sh1.7 billion annually from the livestock economy.
During the 2006-2008 outbreaks, it is estimated to have caused the deaths of 1.2 million animals whose estimated value was Sh2.4 billion and a drop in milk production of 2.1 million litres.
The presence of this disease is also a major limiting factor for trade, export and development of livestock production.
The ministry says it will in the next five years carry out a vaccination to eradicate the disease that has now spread to more than 80 percent of the country.
The disease was first reported in 1942 in Cote D’Ivoire in West Africa.
In the last 20 years, PPR has spread rapidly over vast areas in Africa. It was first detected in Kenya in 2006 in Turkana County near the border of South-Sudan and Uganda.
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