Will Kenya arrest anthrax outbreaks?

Kenya has laid out a plan to eliminate Anthrax in humans and reduce incidence in animals – to less than 1 per cent of the 2020 baseline – by 2036.

The anthrax prevention and control strategy notes that the disease is primarily controlled through animal vaccination. This is also the position adopted by the global anthrax elimination programme, led by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Kenya’s Zoonotic Disease Unit (ZDU) is a One Health body whose job is to coordinate various government and non-government agencies involved in zoonotic diseases prevention and control. ZDU’s Dr Chepkorir says eliminating anthrax will require “experts from human health, animal health, environment health, weather and climate, coordinating and working together.”

One Health approach is focused on enhanced animal human and environmental surveillance, followed by rapid response to outbreaks, detection and treatment of infected humans, and ring vaccination of livestock.

“Vaccination is important because it protects the animal from getting the disease,” Chepkorir says. “If animals don’t contract it then farming communities won’t be infected too.”

Using the one-health approach, Azerbaijan successfully eliminated human anthrax and reduced outbreak in livestock to very low levels. The big question however is: will Kenyan farmers take up the vaccine? “We have two brands of the vaccine in Kenya. Blanthrax and Bivax. Both are manufactured abroad and imported by private sector operators. We buy from the importers and sell to clients such as county governments.

“Only licensed veterinary practitioners are allowed to handle vaccines. Farmers can then pay for the product and the service of vaccinating the animals,” says Dr Alex Sabuni, Managing Director and CEO at Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Production Institute (KEVEVAPI).

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Veterinarians purchase a vial containing 50 doses of the vaccine at Sh2,150. This translates to Sh43 per dose. Veterinarians are however allowed to determine the price at which to sell to farmers. For instance, the county veterinarian that was ordered to go back to Ngugi’s homestead and vaccinate the surviving two cows charged Sh1,500 per animal. Measured against the wholesale price this is more than 3,000 per cent mark-up.

“If vets will charge this high for the vaccines, considering the price at which they are accessing them, it would hamper the fight to contain anthrax,” Dr Chepkorir concurred upon enquiry.

“Many of us farmers do not have the money. In my opinion the government should provide the vaccines for free,” Ngugi says.

Anthrax is among diseases outlined in the Meat Control Act of Kenya: every meat destined for a plate in Kenya must be free of the disease.

That said, anthrax is not in the list of diseases that the recent nationwide initiative – which drew lots of controversy with many citizens accusing President William Ruto of executing a globalist agenda to genetically engineer livestock – to vaccinate all livestock in Kenya.

“The initiative targets Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR),” Jonathan Mueke, Principal Secretary at Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, told The Standard through an official ministry document. The global anthrax elimination strategy stresses sustained vaccination and surveillance in livestock, especially in hotspots areas, covering close to 100 per cent of the animals, for a prolonged period of over 10 years.  

Though Kenya has developed its anthrax elimination strategy, there are no signs that its call for vaccination is being implemented as envisaged.