MOLEBI OBONYE
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Ngamiland is facing an outbreak of Lethobo or stable fly which usually feeds on the blood of animals and are therefore potential vectors of blood-borne zoonotic diseases. Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security, North West district Public Relations Officer, Clifford Molefhi confirmed the flies around Lake Ngami area.
“The crushes affected are five in total so far Phatane, Machaba, Ruha, Thololamoro and Sehithwa” he said. Molefhi said that farmers are continuing to report cases is these areas and so far no concrete figure of animals affected has been recorded, as the ministry is still following up on the reported cases.
Procurement of acaricides and dip has been done in advance as this is not the first incident as recent cases of the stable fly were recently recorded. Possible. There is a plan in place for free rollout of the acaricide to farmers for dipping, which shall commence by early next week.
Dipping for stable fly is farmer based so farmers will be given dip according to the number of livestock they keep so that they can go and do the dipping themselves and produce the returns upon finishing dipping.
Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security, is yet to carry out Ariel surveillance as they do not scout for dead animals due to stable fly, rather it relies on farmers reports if they lost any animals. At present the ministry is on the process of collating all data on the effects of stable fly outbreak on livestock.