by AGATHA NGOTHO
Wednesday July 12, 2023
A herd of camels in Isiolo county. Image: AGATHA NGOTHO
The Director of Veterinary Services has issued a high alert of an outbreak of a camel disease in Somalia.
The notice sent on July 5, by Dr Harry Oyas for the Director of Veterinary Services, noted that there has been an outbreak of an unknown camel disease in Somalia.
“My attention has been drawn to reports of an unknown camel disease in Jubaland, Somalia. The disease starts with high fever and the animal dies within 24 hours,” Oyas said.
He said the disease is highly transmissible among camel population and results in massive sudden death. It affects both the young and adult but the rate of mortality was higher in young.
“It was reported that during field mission, the teams visited 344 households where 6,812 heads of camels’ cases were registered and 3,894 deaths,” the notice read.
“The teams reported that the clinical signs of the disease were head trembling, high fever, depression, enlarged pre-scapular lymph-nodes, difficulty of breathing, urine retention, sudden death or death after two-three days,” the DVS notice said.
Oyas said it was further reported that the animals recover progressively if the first symptoms of the disease appear and the animals are injected with antibiotics.
“There has not been official communication on the confirmatory diagnosis of the disease,” he added.
The alert was sent to country DVS offices in Mandera, Turkana, Isiolo, Wajir, Tana River, Garissa, Marsabit and West Pokot.
Oyas urged the county vets to be on high alert.“The purpose of this letter is to urge you to place your early warning systems on high alert. Early detection and response of the disease is important in order to minimise the impacts in both human and livestock. This is in addition to reducing the cost of control,” Oyas said.
Data from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Eastern Africa shows that in May 2021, an outbreak of an unknown camel disease was reported from Ethiopia and Somalia.
The disease was suspected to have a link to infections in humans, affecting nearly 200 people according to World Health Organization field report of June 12, 2021.
Symptoms in humans included diarrhoea, fever and vomiting associated with the consumption of camel meat. IGAD noted that so far, no definitive causative agent has been identified, though the suspicion is that it is either a bacterial or viral infection.
In May 2020, Kenya also witnessed a similar outbreak which occurred along the cross-border areas of Ethiopia and Somalia.
The clinical signs in camels included thick, white mucopurulent discharge, lacrimation, difficult/laboured breathing, extended neck, enlarged cervical and parotid lymph nodes, recumbence and death in three-four days.
“These symptoms were similar to those of infected camels in Ethiopia and Somalia, an indication that it could be the same causative agent though it requires further investigation for definitive diagnosis. ILRI supported diagnosis of samples collected from camels in Kenya, and the causative agent was diagnosed as Mannheimia Haemolytica,” said IGAD.