Title:
Group Works to Expand Supply of Cattle Vaccine in
Africa
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
Each year a million cows in Africa die from East
Coast fever. The disease is spread by tick bites.
Young cows are most at risk; they can die within
days.
Farmers and herders can lose up to half or more of
their calves to East Coast fever. The disease is
widespread in eleven countries. And experts say it
now threatens ten million more animals in new areas
including southern Sudan.
Researchers first developed an experimental vaccine
against East Coast fever thirty years ago. The
vaccine works by a process called "infection and
treatment."
The animals are infected with whole parasites and
treated with antibiotics at the same time. This
keeps the disease from developing.
Controlling East Coast fever has meant a better life
in areas that have gotten the vaccine.
For example, the vaccine has been available to a
group of Maasai herders in northern Tanzania for
about seven years. They used to lose three-fourths
of their newborn calves each year. Now, most
survive. As a result, many people have extra cattle
to sell, and use the money to pay for school for
their children.
But making the vaccine more widely available --
especially in rural areas -- has been difficult.
Farmers have been using supplies produced in the
nineteen nineties. Recently there was a shortage.
The International Livestock Research Institute made
one million doses at the request of African
officials. But that supply is only temporary.
Another problem is that the vaccine must be kept
extremely cold.
Now, the nonprofit group, Global Alliance for
Livestock Veterinary Medicines, is trying to expand
production and lower the cost. GALVmed spokesman
Hameed Nuru says mobile phones have helped lower
some barriers to distribution.
He says: "Now, with cellular technology, most of the
people we reach all have cell phones. And they call
the delivery agent who can come and meet them at a
particular place and do the vaccination for them."
The vaccine is not cheap. But Hameed Nuru says the
herders get together to sell a bull and use the
money to vaccinate all their animals.
They understand that they are getting value for
their money: A cow is worth nearly twice as much if
it is vaccinated. A goal is to have local people
develop businesses supplying the vaccine. The
efforts are supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation and the British government.
And thats the VOA Special English Agriculture
report.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
