Uganda has joined the rest of the world to commemorate the World Veterinary Day 2025 with President Museveni reaffirming government’s commitment to fight livestock diseases, mainly tick and foot and mouth diseases.
The president in his remarks delivered by Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba during this year’s celebrations held in Kiboga district said the NRM government has supported some local investors who share the same vision to establish veterinary drug factories and other key farm inputs production centers.
Museveni, however hastened to caution farmers who are illegally becoming vets themselves by making concoctions of drugs to manage tick infestation. This, he noted, is causing more harm than good.
“Our vision is to create self-reliance and efficiency in our service delivery and that’s why I personally requested the government to fund the development and commercial production of the anti-tick vaccine using our own facilities and Ugandan scientists,” President Museveni remarked.
The work by local scientists led by National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) and Makerere University, according to president Museveni is yielding fruits to bring a practical solution to the tick problem and their research is promising that Uganda shall have the anti-tick vaccine available for all farmers as the issue has been with foot and mouth.
“Very soon, we shall have these livestock disease challenges become history and we focus on dealing with production issues such as nutrition and training farmers on supplementary feeding and availing equipment to produce and make sufficient feeds for them,” he added.
The President also reminded Ugandans of the achievements his government has been able to register in the vet sector, ever since he assumed power. There has been liberalization of veterinary services and privatization of clinical services.
Initially, the government provided most veterinary services, including animal health and productive services, which were centrally planned and managed, often with a focus on large-scale livestock operations, such as vaccination programs and adventist epidemic diseases.
However, when the NRM government came into power, they adopted the structural adjustment programs, leading to a major restructuring of veterinary services to create efficiency in service delivery.
Efforts are now diverted towards ensuring production of animal breeds that are tolerant to the climate and diseases. Once this is achieved, the NRM government would have realised its vision of agro-industrialisation, he said .
“This will directly and indirectly create jobs for our youth along the agricultural value chains and bring incomes to the households which produce these products.”
As Part of the week-long activities to mark the day that was held under the theme ‘Animal Health takes a Team’, more than 1000 dogs were vaccinated, removed uterus from female dogs and castrated over 300 dogs.
Equally, 5,000 herds of cattle and 1,500 goats were vaccinated against Foot and Mouth Disease. Different exhibitors showcased a number of innovations and new developments in their sector.
Minister Nabakooba congratulated veterinarians upon the successful organization of the event and visited stalls where she commended the vets for the great development of their sector and playing a significant role in the transformation of the country.
The innovations ranged from vaccination to development of drugs for animals and food that meets the required standards.
“ I learnt and picked out a few things. I hope when I go back, I will be in position to read and understand more of what you actually do and how we can use those services,” Nabakooba said.
She asked the responsible authorities to continue organising free services in the communities such as mass vaccinations to help local farmers benefit in their projects.
“In the just concluded PDM tour of Greater Mubende, you are aware we visited cattle, poultry, and piggery farmers, and those are the beginners who need more veterinary services.,” she said
On behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), Dr Anna Rose Ademun, the Commissioner for Animal Health, said in the move to intensify the fight against livestock diseases, the government is making a shift in some policies.
She noted that the government is moving away from a policy of providing FMD vaccine to requiring farmers to pay a small fee for vaccination of their animals.
“The anti-tick vaccine being developed will be injected to animals and we move away from spraying ticks. A farmer will be required to pay about $2 (approximately Shs75000) and vaccination will be done twice a year,” she explained.
Uganda Veterinary Association (UVA) president Dr Andrew Akashaba, requested government to recruit more paraprofessional vets to help in disease surveillance and control.
“We request the government to implement the human resource recommendation of having a veterinary officer and an assistant vet officer in every sub county,” Dr Akashaba said.
On behalf of the exhibitors, Dr Alice Banga, the founder of Eram Uganda Limited, commended the work done by fellow vet officers. She revelaed that animal rearing has boosted household incomes, noting that families doing animal husbandry are better off compared to their counterparts who do not have animals.
