(ERGO) – Somali pastoralists in remote rural parts of northern Sool region say their sheep are dying from an unidentified disease that has spread in the area over the past month.
Ismail Warsame Abdi, 55, a pastoralist in Halhalliye area, 45 km north of Lasanod, has lost 150 sheep and has divided his remaining flock of 350 into different groups to reduce the risk of contagion. However, he is worried about losing his entire flock.
“The symptoms of the disease include fever, frequent coughing, runny nose followed by bloody mucus. I have been raising animals for a long period of time and I have never seen a disease like this. The animal does not live more than three days after it shows the symptoms,” Ismael said.
At least 8,000 sheep in the area are estimated to have died so far.
Dr Abdikarim Ali Yusuf, a local veterinarian, told Radio Ergo there was no laboratory facility in Sool and he was unable to confirm the disease. However, he noted that tick fever or ‘joogaha’displayed similar symptoms to those reported.
Abdirashid Mohamed Botan, the coordinator of Somaliland’s ministry of livestock in Sool region, told Radio Ergo that local herders had reported the outbreak. He advised them not to use any drugs until the disease had been officially identified. He had asked the ministry headquarters in Hargeisa to send a team to investigate.
Meanwhile, herders are getting anxious and are resorting to whatever means they can to save their sheep. Abdirahim Abdi Isse, a herder in Yagori some 52 km northwest of Lasanod, told Radio Ergo by phone that he had lost 100 of his 500 sheep in less than a month. He said he had injected the animals with Oxytetracycline antibiotic thinking that the disease killing them was Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia (CCPP), but the sick animals did not recover.
“Our lives depend on these animals; we slaughter them and sell them when in need. We were already badly hit by the drought and now no-one wants to buy a sick animal,” he said.
Sheep are mostly reared in the northern part of Sool, which has large open grassland.
Abdirashid Mohamed Botan said the ministry had carried out a livestock vaccination and treatment campaign in Sool in August reaching 627,500 goats, sheep, cattle and camels.
