Unexplained disease kills cattle in Awerial County,

RUMBEK – An unknown disease has killed at least 75 cows in Awerial County of Lakes State, over the past three weeks, according to local cattle keepers.

The disease causes large wounds on the hooves, body swelling, and weakness, leading to death within hours, cattle keeper Aguto Riak told Sudan Post.

“Cattle keepers confirmed that an unknown disease outbreak has killed about 75 herd of cattle in Awerial County of Lakes State after a cow developed big wounds in their hooves and swellings in their bodies and weakness and it kills the animal few hours after the attack,” Riak said.

“We lost 30 cows in just two weeks in Ataak and Lawoi cattle camps. He describes the death of 30 cows in a massive row as a big loss to the cattle keeping community since it is their only source of livelihood,” he added.

Riak urged authorities in the Ministry of Animal Resource, Livestock, and Fisheries to intervene.

“We don’t know the disease or the treatment. It is more serious in Attaak, Lawoi and Ruop, and the symptoms include wounds in the hooves and body,” he said.

Abor Wal, a cattle keeper youth in Ruop, reported 25 deaths in his camp this week alone, with more animals falling sick.

“This cattle disease has become very serious, at least three cows can die from just one person and that is a big loss as this is where we base our livelihoods. Yesterday when we reviewed the total number that died thin this week, we found that it is 25 cows and we are worried more may die if no help is coming urgently,” Wal said.

The cattle keepers are calling on the Department of Livestock and Fisheries and NGO partners in Awerial to intervene to assess the disease and accord treatment to avoid further losses of cattle in the area.

James Chuti Riak, Director of Livestock and Fisheries in Awerial, promised to visit the affected camps next week.

For his part the director for livestock and fisheries in Awerial, James Chuti Riak promised to visit the cattle camps next week to assess the nature of the disease.

“I will need to visit those cattle camps, assess the condition of the cattle there and identify the disease before I could report it to the State ministry. But I blame the cattle camp leaders for not reporting urgently about this disease before it killed a huge number of cattle,” he said.