Nata Chief fears buffaloes may have brought FMD

Kgosi Rebagamang Rancholo of Nata has a nagging fear that the marauding buffaloes may have infected cattle in his and surrounding villages such as Manxotae and Sepako with the foot and mouth disease virus.

There are however no clinical signs of the disease in the said places. At the peak of the dry season which ended only a few weeks ago hundreds of wild animals, especially buffaloes, lions and elephants invaded the Nata and neighbouring villages in search of water.

The wild animals drank water from the village dams and other sources of water where they freely mingled with local cattle herds. Too weak and dehydrated, some of the wild animals got stuck in the mud in the villages and died. Kgosi Rancholo is concerned that nothing has been done to properly dispose of the carcases which are littering the environment including the water holes.

Some of the carcases, according to him are inside the streams, rivers, dams and ponds which the rains have filled with water and from which the domestic animals are drinking.

“The fact of the matter is that, even during the dry season, whenever the Department of Wildlife, filled the water holes with water for the desperate wild animals, it seems no effort was made even to remove the carcasses from the waterholes before recharging the waterholes with water. What happened is that the cattle were made to drink from the same sources of water with a buffalo carcass inside,” said the kgosi.

The traditional leader, said he would blame no one but the Department of Wildlife should the foot and mouth disease strike in his area, argues that his community deserves better. African buffaloes are known to be one of the main transmitters of the virus to livestock making it difficult to eradicate the disease.

Transmission from the African buffalo has been reduced by separating cattle from buffaloes by the use of fences. In the case of Nata, people fear that with most of the buffaloes coming from Zimbabwe where the management of animal diseases leaves much to be desired, the risks of the disease being re-introduced in Nata are high. Apparently, the disease was last seen in Nata in 1976.

When reached for comment, the Principal Wildlife Officer, Mbututu Mbututu did not rule out the possibility of the buffaloes having infected the cattle with the FMD virus.

“We cannot rule that out. It is possible since they mingled. As we speak, the people from the Veterinary Department are on the ground studying and observing the situation. Part of their mandate is to ensure that the wild animals do not return to the village or cattle posts where they mingle with the cattle. To achieve this, we are busy rehabilitating the borehole outside the village for the wild animals,” said Mbututu.

Asked about the carcasses which are reportedly littering Nata and surrounding villages, he said those will be collected and burnt in January next year.