November 14, 2008
East Africa to manufacture vaccine for Newcastle disease
Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) in conjunction with Brentec Investments, has embarked on an initiative to start producing the vaccine locally.
Dr Charles Kwesiga, the executive director of UIRI said that the vaccine will be ready within the next 15 to 18 months to scale-up production rapidly to cater fully for the domestic market and to extend coverage to the regional market.
With disease control, production of poultry from indigenous birds could easily double or triple nationally, going a long way to meet necessary increases in per capita egg consumption, with subsequent benefits to human nutrition, health and physical development, and household income.
He explains that the reason why local production of Newcastle vaccine is important is because the poultry industry simply cannot take off until the constant threat of Newcastle has been controlled.
He says if peasant farmers would vaccinate their chickens against disease at appropriate times they would see a full reduction in losses, more production, and would be more receptive to other messages concerning improved poultry production and poverty eradication. More birds would then be available for home consumption or for sale.
Initial control of Newcastle Disease in village chickens has had very limited success. Vaccinating small numbers of chickens in dispersed rural households has not been cost-effective, further complicated by the decline in the quality and coverage of veterinary services especially in villages.
