photo:Tim Salmon
Farmers in the Dordrecht district in the Eastern Cape have started their own emergency inoculation programme after several cases of rabies were detected in the area and also in the Sterkstroom and Swempoort areas.
Dordrecht farmers asked the state vet in Queenstown to start emergency inoculations on 21 December, but were told to call back on 3 January when field staff would return to work.
Not satisfied with this response, Keith Bradfield, a farmer in the Dordrecht district, went to the state vet’s offices the following day and was given enough vaccine for 40 dogs. He immediately vaccinated his own farm dogs and some on neighbouring farms in the area.
However, Sibane Mfenyana, an animal health technician from the state vet department in Queenstown, recently visited Dordrecht, Sterkstroom and Indwe to administer the rabies vaccine. Farmers, as well as people living in the residential areas of Dordrecht and the nearby township, were urged to bring all their animals to be vaccinated. – Tim and Sharon Salmon
