Oxfam Launches First Animal Vaccination Program in Chad
5 October 2004
Thousands of animals are now being vaccinated in eastern Chad thanks to a new program launched by Oxfam. The vaccinations will improve the health of the herds that are so vital to the livelihoods and diets of local people and refugees from Sudan.
After violence erupted in the Darfur region of western Sudan in early 2003, some of the luckier villagers managed to escape with their animals and flee into neighboring Chad. Still, crossing an international border has been no guarantee that the Sudanese would be able to save themselves or the sheep, goats, camels, horses, and cows that are so critical to their livelihoods and diet.
While aid workers have no way of knowing the exact number of livestock the refugees have brought with them to temporary camps near the Chad border, this much they do know about the grim conditions of life on the run: They have counted more than 64,000 dead animals since the refugees arrived.
In an effort to stem those deaths and to improve the overall health of the herds, Oxfam has become the first aid agency in the region to launch a massive vaccination program. Its goal is to vaccinate 50,000 animals in the coming weeks. The program is under way at three sites: Iridimi, Mile, and Breidjing. This week, Oxfam will also expand the effort to Amnababak, located near Chad’s northern border with Sudan.
With malnutrition rates soaring among the refugees and their Chadian hosts, one aim of the vaccination program is to increase their access to food by ensuring that their animals remain healthy enough to give milk or for sale or slaughter. Up to 39 percent of the refugee population now suffers from malnutrition, and aid agencies estimate that the rate among people in the local communities is even higher. People depend on their animals for dairy products and meat, and when they must, they sell them to buy food staples such as oil or sugar.
"In this type of pastoralist system, the animals are a way of keeping capital," said Oscar Samso, an Oxfam veterinarian working for the vaccination program. "It’s like a cash machine: They need money, they sell a sheep."
"In some cases, we need to treat the animals with antibiotics before we vaccinate them because they are in such weak condition they wouldn’t stand the vaccine." - Carmen Rodriguez, Oxfam aid worker
Keeping the sheep, and all the other animals in their various herds, alive and healthy is vital, especially with the dry season about to begin. Before the violence broke out, a wealthy family in Darfur might have owned as many as 400 or 500 animals. Now, on average, families have just five or six animals left. The rest have been stolen or killed, or have died from disease or exhaustion during their flight out of Sudan.
"In some cases, we need to treat the animals with antibiotics before we vaccinate them because they are in such weak condition they wouldn’t stand the vaccine," said Oxfam aid worker Carmen Rodriguez. But convincing people to see the benefits of the program took a little work, at least in the beginning, she added.
Overcoming Fear
During the first day of vaccinations at Breidjing, a camp exploding with more than 40,000 refugees, very few people showed up with their animals, said Rodriguez. A rumor had circulated that the vaccination would poison the animals, she said.
"That shows the fear the refugees have," Rodriguez said. "We went into the camp and spoke to people."
With their fears quelled, refugees - and locals - began bringing their animals by the thousands. Toward the end of September, 4,400 animals at Breidjing had already received vaccinations. At Mile, program workers have vaccinated 6,700 animals, and at Iridimi, they have treated 9,500 animals.
"When people see you in the field with vaccines, with bags and white coats and syringes, they will come," said Samso, adding that the program has been well received by the local residents. "The last time they had a vaccine campaign was three to four years ago and they had to pay. This time it’s free."
And it’s needed more than ever by the local residents.
Before, all the aid was aimed at the refugees, but we also have problems because the camps are placed on our lands," said Amine Ali Fort-Lamy, the regional sous prefect, a local authority. "If you don’t help us, we will be like the refugees on our land in one year’s time."
Resources in the region are limited, and now, tens of thousands more people are depending on them. For instance, the population in the Breidjing area is traditionally about 3,000 people. With the refugees, it has climbed to nearly 50,000 - and they must all share the same limited grazing land, water, and firewood.
Battling Disease
Oxfam’s vaccination program is one of the few now taking into account the needs of both the refugees and the people who are hosting them.
Samso and other team members are giving inoculations for the three diseases most common to the area. One of them is pasteurellosis, which affects camels, sheep, goats, and cows. The disease causes an acute pneumonia and results in high rates of death. Additionally, those animals as well as donkeys and horses are being vaccinated against a type of anthrax.
"This disease causes sudden death within a few hours," said Samso. "It produces huge internal hemorrhaging. The important thing to do is not to open the animal when it dies." That could let disease-bearing spores spill onto the soil, where they would stay for years, he said.
The third disease, clostridium, affects only cows, and particularly their young, said Samso. It causes an inflammation of the joints and high mortality rates. Mother cows receive the vaccination because the immunization passes through their milk to their calves.
"In two months’ time, it will come the season to transfer cattle to places where they can graze," said Rodriguez. "It’s very important we carry out the vaccination now - swiftly."
The Ministry of Livestock in Chad has asked Oxfam to extend the program to areas in the south that host refugees, and to help build slaughterhouses to guarantee good hygiene when animals are killed for human consumption.
