January 15, 2007

Kenya may face food crisis due to rift valley fever

Measures to contain a Rift Valley fever outbreak in Kenya by restricting the movement of people and livestock might create a food shortage, the US Agency for International Development said.

The disease is passed to humans from livestock by mosquito bites or by handling contaminated animal fluids.

The closure of Garissa market, a main livestock-selling hub, halted trade in cattle in an area spanning the borders of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, including the Gedo and Juba Valley regions of Somalia, where food is already in short supply, the USAid's Famine Early Warning System Network said.

Health workers fear a repeat of an outbreak of the fever in 1997 that infected thousands of people in Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania.

The outbreak represents a risk to regional export markets, livestock sales and consumption, according to USAid report. If the disease were to spread, the civil insecurity would constrain large-scale livestock vaccination programmes, it added.

The 1997 outbreak in Somalia led to a ban on imports of the country's livestock to the Arab Gulf States. Livestock exports were the backbone of the Somali economy, the UN report said.