By Abdulkarim Ssengendo
Livestock farmers have been urged to always use existing acaricides and follow the manufacturer’s instructions as this will support efforts to eliminate tick-borne diseases and fight cross-resistance.
The call was made by Nuwagira Bosco-animal health expert and a farmer in Nyamiko village-Kigoma ward, Kizinda-Kigoma town council-Bushenyi district. Nuwagira who has worked with farmers for many years, was concerned farmers are good at researching but their research is not documented and the reason they end up doing research in a wrong way.
Nuwagira disassociated himself from claims by some farmers that the existing animal drugs are not working, attributing the problem to the way farmers mix and apply acaricide which he said is wanting. He said many farmers just apply acaricide on an animal without considering its body size and weight.
“I have been having interviews with farmers and it’s a bit challenging, somebody thinks an acaricide volume which is enough for a calf is enough for an adult animal and they end up giving a small amount of acaricide on the animal compared to its weight,”. Nuwagira stated. He also advised farmers to adopt a method of alternating acaricide but challenged them against applying it wrongly, especially using the same class of acaricide.
“When you change the acaricide properly, switching from one class to another and applying the right amount following the manufacturer’s instructions the acaricide will effectively kill the tick, “he added. Regarding mixing agrochemicals with acaricides, Nuwagira said this may work for a short while but with a lot of shortcomings attributing this to the cross-drug resistance.
“The concentrations are totally different, the ones for plants are in higher concentration and one for animals are in lower concentration, when they mix, they increase the concentration and a tick that survives that concentration will never be killed by the same class of acaricides that’s why resistance is increasing,” he stated. He explained that animals are like human beings, some of them have ended up dying because farmers are giving them higher doses which are not required by their body. “Some have developed eye defects and others have blindness, I advise farmers to always use what is existing and follow manufacturer’s instructions, “He added.
Nuwagira also advised those with crossbreeds to always have sheds at their farms. He explained that crossbreeds are not heat tolerant and when the sunshine increases the body temperature increases, they become uncomfortable. He said even people doing zero grazing should have sheds in their farms for their animals. Nuwagira has a zero-grazing project with 15 animals but his plan is to move to 30 cows and 60 in the next two years and targets 20000 litres production per day with the aim to establish a milk processing plant in future and hit the market.
