Hundreds of cattle have died from what they say is a mysterious disease in Insiza district, since December 2021.
The disease has had a devastating impact on the livelihoods of cattle ranchers in the area.
Farmers have described how the disease strikes quickly, with cattle becoming weak and moving around with their heads down before dying within two days.
When the cattle are slaughtered, their intestines, lungs, and liver are found to be rotten.
One of the farmers, Isaac Ncube from Nkankezi, said his kraal was the first to be attacked by the disease, and since then he has lost about 25 cattle.
“It started in December 2021 but it was not as aggressive. It started to intensify last year. You just see the cow walking with its head down. It will be weak. After two to three days it just falls down and that would be the end of it. If you slaughter it you find that all of the offals- intestines, lungs, liver will be rotten inside. I have lost 25 cattle to this disease,” Ncube said.
“Of late it is so terrible. One kraal can lose up to 10 cows in a day. We ended up selling the unaffected ones to abattoirs. Because there was no other option. The veterinarians who come here would advise us to dip them at least twice a week because at first they used to say it was a tick but the death toll would increase after dipping. We are not even allowed to send them to neighbouring areas because they fear it may spread the disease.”
Another farmer, Mr Siziba, claimed the veterinary has been struggling to diagnose the disease.
“Our cows are sick. What is worrying is the fact that even the veterinary is failing to diagnose the disease. There is no cure for it. Many farmers here have lost all their cattle. Some had 30, 50 or 70 herds but now they have nothing. I had 17, I am left with nothing. The situation is really bad,” Siziba said.
“At first we were told that it was caused by ticks, we would try to dip them the usual way we do but nothing helped. This challenge started about three years ago, in areas around Masvingo, it spread to Mberengwa and Insiza last year. Since then people have been losing their cattle on a daily basis.
“The rainy season is here. How do we work in our fields? We were accustomed to using our cattle for ploughing, now we have to go and hire tractors. That is a lot of money. Our cattle are our source of income, we have to pay fees for our children, how do we do it without our cattle?”
Another farmer, Mr Nkomo, who lost 40 cattle to this disease, said they now fear for their lives because there is no guarantee that the few remaining cattle, which they also sell to abattoirs, are not infected with the disease and they have no clue if it does not have any effects on human beings.
Matabeleland South provincial veterinary services director, Dr Enat Mdlongwa, explained to CITE that the disease is not new, but the farmers are in denial of the diagnosis made by the veterinary department.
Dr Mdlongwa said sometimes the farmers leave their cattle to wander off for a long time, only to look for them when they want to use them.
He said while they are away, they will not be receiving adequate treatment as advised by the veterinarian.
“This is a disease that we are aware of. It was first diagnosed in Zimbabwe around 1936 and first detected in Matabeleland around 1952. We have attended to numerous cases of this sort there in Insiza, and tests conducted at our laboratories confirmed that this was the January disease that affects all cattle,” Dr Mdlongwa said.
“The challenge is sometimes farmers run their cattle business in a nomadic way. The farmers live in communal areas with their herds but they let them wander off to commercial areas towards Zvishavane. Then they look for them when there is use for them. By then, they would have missed some treatment. Sometimes you find that their lungs would have been filled with water due to various conditions.”
Dr Mdlongwa encouraged the farmers to adhere to the dipping standards that are communicated to them by the veterinarian.
“We encourage the farmers to dip their cattle at least every five days. If this is not done, the ticks that attack cattle will multiply and this will create problems for them. Some also under-declare their cattle on stock cards and as a result, they do not dip all the cattle as regularly as possible,” he said.
“On several occasions, the farmers have spread myths that after dipping their cattle they die. There is no way we can tell them to get cute for the cattle that will cause them to die. The need to adhere to the advice we give them for their herds to survive.”
