The Federal Government has strengthened efforts to curb livestock diseases and improve animal productivity in Gombe State with the donation of over 200,000 doses of animal vaccines, aimed at protecting farmers’ livelihoods and safeguarding public health.
The vaccines were presented to the Gombe State Government on Monday by the National Coordinator of the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES), a World Bank–assisted programme, Dr Sanusi Abubakar. He said the intervention was designed to enhance disease prevention, improve animal health outcomes and boost productivity across the state’s livestock value chain.
Represented by Dr Sadik Usman, an official of the National L-PRES, Abubakar explained that the consignment would equip the state to tackle trans-boundary animal diseases that undermine livestock productivity and farmers’ incomes. He disclosed that the package includes 150,000 doses of Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) vaccines, 50,000 doses for Newcastle Disease and 4,000 doses for Foot-and-Mouth Disease, noting that the vaccines were critical to controlling disease spread and improving overall livestock performance.
He urged all stakeholders to ensure that the vaccines reach the intended beneficiaries and announced that an additional batch of vaccines targeting Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) would be delivered to the state in the coming weeks.
Receiving the vaccines on behalf of the state government, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cooperatives, Dr Barnabas Malle, commended L-PRES for its sustained support towards improving livestock productivity in Gombe. He said the vaccines would be administered free of charge to livestock across the state as part of measures to combat deadly animal diseases.
Malle noted that the donation would complement the state’s annual mass vaccination programme, recalling that Gombe had previously procured Anthrax vaccines with L-PRES support. With the state’s large livestock population, he said the doses would significantly strengthen ongoing efforts, adding that the government plans to procure additional vaccines to ensure wider coverage.
He assured that the vaccines would be deployed judiciously in line with the objectives of the donors and the state’s livestock development agenda.
Also speaking, the Gombe L-PRES Project Coordinator, Prof. Usman Abubakar, described the intervention as vital to the state’s agricultural economy, identifying the targeted diseases as major causes of livestock losses in the region.
He said arrangements were underway to set up a working group to oversee the vaccination exercise and called on herders and livestock farmers to present their animals, stressing that the vaccination is free, safe and effective.
