PESHAWAR (INP) : The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Livestock and Dairy Development Directorate General for KP and FATA will vaccinate 174,000 small and174,000 large ruminants for the families displaced by the military operation in North Waziristan and their host communities. Fifty-eight thousand families in the KP districts of Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Karak and the Federal Region Bannu in FATA will benefit from this campaign by March 2015.
This assistance is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Belgian Aid and the United Nations’ Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to protect and restore key livelihood assets and food production of the conflict affected small-scale livestock holders.
Along with the vaccines, FAO will provide 10,000 feed packages for animals (consisting of compound feed, urea molasses), feeding and water troughs, as well as milking kits. Additionally, 1,000 families will receive shelter material to protect livestock from harsh weather, and 9,800 families will receive sets of rabbi vegetable seeds and portable canvas bags to start kitchen gardens.
“Livestock is an important source of livelihoods for poor households. It provides milk, eggs, meat and cash when sold. Preserving the lives and health of IDP livestock is a high priority for FAO,” says Patrick T. Evans, FAO Representative in Pakistan.
The vaccination campaign started in October and will last five months. FAO procured 526,000 doses of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccines for large ruminants and 178,000 doses of Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) vaccines for goats and sheep. Both diseases are highly contagious and cause huge economic losses due to high rates of mortality and morbidity among livestock. The vaccines are administered by veterinary professionals from the Livestock and Dairy Development Directorate General of KP and FATA. Animals also receive injectable de-worming medicine – another measure provided by FAO to preserve the health and productivity of the livestock.
