Mara Mobile Veterinary Unit

Category: Livestock, Maasai People | Date: Jun 24 2008 | By: asuka

For those of you who donated towards Lesingo’s community animal health assitance course. Here is the certificate Lesingo got after attending the course!

He thanks every single one of you who helped him attaining this cerfiticate.

Lesingo, listening to his lecturer attentively.

“Ashe Oleng!!” (“thank you very much” in Maa (Maasai language)) from Lesingo.

P.S.
Sorry for such a long silence recently! Extended travel, together with piling deadlines for dozen grant applications, plus tax filing due at end of this month all contributed to my silence…

5 responses so far

Category: Life of a Vet, Livestock | Date: Mar 15 2008 | By: admin

While I was in Lolgorian, I have received the report that someone who was hunting for bush meat (wildlife) accidentally shot two calves by arrows. Apparently this happened a week ago, but the wound was still swollen. The owner requested a surgery to remove an “embedded arrow” from his calves’ abdomen. The farmer’s house was 4 hours round trip on a horrendous road and when I arrived at the village, I found two calves with very similar wounds (swollen point on right lower abdomen). When I checked the wound, I did not think that arrow point was still inside as owner claims, as swelling was way too small in comparrison.

He claims that this huge arrown point is still inside!

I have removed the small metal pieces and puss inside the swelling.

Practically the entire village came to witness this surgery…

“Ng’ombe imeshona kama gunia “(cattle stitched up like wheat sack), says the villager…

5 responses so far

Category: Life of a Vet, Livestock | Date: Mar 14 2008 | By: admin

I have just managed to reach one of the big towns here in Trans Mara, Lolgorian. This town is predominantly Maasai town and needless to say, livestock trade is major business. Town holds two major market days (Wednesday and Saturday) and Maasai livestock traders from all over Trans Mara and Narok districts congregate in “soko ya ng’ombe” (cattle market). Many are Maasai from Loita region who spend two days walking to Lolgorian and three days back to Loita with mix herd of cattle, sheeps and goats. On Thursday and Sunday morning following the market days, you will come across parade of livestock along the main road.

“soko ya ng’ombe”

When there is a major trading of livestock in form of live weight, there is off course amajor trading of livestock in carcass weight. Slaughter house in Lolgorian is busy on Wednesday and Saturday. As a consequences, stray dogs of Lolgorian town wait patiently around the abbatoire for occational meat scraps, causing growing concern for Public Health Department. Stray dogs can potentially become the vector for diseases such as Hydatidosis and you really don’t want “scavengers” hanging around in a place where people handle meat for human consumption.

So, last month, the department sent some officals to take care of the problem by euthenizing them. Some dogs with owner also hang around the slaughter house and these dogs also died from feeding on the bait. As I visited households from Lolgorian, owner bittery told us that their dogs were killed last month. The point I want to bring out here is the issue of public health awareness and responsibility of dog owner. I am not blaming the public health department because they are doing their job in taking care of human health and preventing chances of potentially human-transmissable diseases. It will be owner’s responsibility to restrict their dog’s activity around the slaughter house, as well as town’s management to clean out trash point and fence off larger premises of the slaughter house, so that dogs do not become scavengers in town. People must understand that being an unresponsible owner is the direct cause of death of their dogs.

This particular owner restricted her dogs in courtyard.

I hope next generation will be more responsible dog keeper.

7 responses so far

Category: Life of a Vet, Livestock, Wildlife | Date: Mar 02 2008 | By: admin

Today, I met up with ranger Naitoi and I have downloaded the photos he has taken from last year. There were very interesting photos of wildlife in the reserve, but what really interested me the most were the photos taken from livestock attack scene. Yup, crime scene photos with all the gruesome details of torn flesh, dripping blood and all… well, basically lots and lots of dead bodies.

Naitoi had almost 200 photos of livestock attack, but I only manage to update 34 photos here on my personal website. The text is in Japanese, but the graphics should give you an idea on how much damage the large carnivores can cause to livestock keeper. These amazing photos gives an idea on what we are dealing with when we talk about need for predator control. The wildlife-livestock conflict is the major reason why lions and leopards are being killed all over Africa, but if you take a look at these photos, you will understand livestock keepers’ anger over the whole issue.

The first sets of photos are of cattle killed by lions. Second sets are leopard attacks on sheeps and goats. Lastly, I posted photos of livestock massacre or killing craze by leopard. I do not know if these are appropriate word to describe this behavior, but it is just crazy how this predator play kills the poor animals. It is just an enormous waste of animal lives…

This photo in particular shows powerful representation of what kind of damage carnivores are capable of inflicting on a herd of livestock. This is as a result of one leopard entering into boma at night, killing18 animals in half an hour or so, and eating only one. ALL the photos of mass killing are taken at different household in Trans Mara.

If you live in an area within 5 Km of wildlife reserve border, the livestock owners will be compensated for the loss (under the condition that they would not revenge kill the carnivores) It was hugely successful program started by Mara Conservancy in reducing an incident of revenge kill. However, this scheme has come to halt following the financial difficulty after tourism collapse.

3 responses so far

Category: Life of a Vet, Livestock, Wildlife | Date: Aug 28 2007 | By: admin

WA-KURIA are the tribe notorious here in the Mara for wildlife poaching. Unfortunately for most people living along the escarpment, they are also known for being a serious cattle rustler. Up until couple of weeks ago, Wa-Kuria were harvesting their maize corn and both the wildlife reserve and Maasai were enjoying their short lived peace from these people. Well, no more peace now. This morning my worker heard people screaming in village quite a distant from my house. Wa-Kuria are back from their maize field. Before the Mara Conservancy came to the Mara Triangle, poaching and cattle rustling by Wa-Kuria were both out of control. Mara Conservancy rangers have caught 820 poachers (majority being Wa-Kuria) and retrieved hundreds of Maasai cattle stolen by Wa-Kuria. This morning was no exception. As I drove to our vaccination point with my assistant, we heard on the radio that rangers have located the stolen cattle near TZ border. It is bad luck for Maasai to not to slaughter a bull when someone returns their stolen cattle, so I hear that there will be nyama (meat) feast in the boma tomorrow.

2 responses so far

Category: Livestock | Date: Jul 20 2007 | By: admin

Thanks to Virginia from wildlifedirect, I finally figured out how to upload the video clip. Yes, I now have my new laptop! I changed from Windows to Mac, and I am still in process of getting used to it. High speed internet also helps with the website updating. I can’t believe its speed and how it is hassle free! The connection I have back in Kenya is so slow that I usually do other things while webpage loads itself…

I found an interesting old video clip from my dead laptop’s hard disk which my friend recently recovered. It is Stick Fighting Tournament by Mursi tribe which I filmed in Southern Ethiopia couple of years ago.

2 responses so far

Category: Livestock | Date: Mar 25 2007 | By: admin

‘Uko na dawa neupe?’ (Do you have a white drug?). Penicillin in the form of Penstrep (penicillin and streptomycine) is commonly referred to as ‘white drug’ here in the Maasai land. It is antibiotic but most people use it for completely different purpose. People believe that it is an aphrodisiac due to physical appearance of the drug. Well, solution is white and viscous. They say it looks like semen. People inject penstrep just before bull is about to mount a cow. Yes, it is white viscous solution, but that has nothing to do with libido what so ever. ‘Please don’t inject penstrep to a bull before mating!!!’, I once again exclaim.

2 responses so far

Category: Livestock | Date: Mar 24 2007 | By: admin

Maasai are serious believer of veterinary drugs. They are very much into tetracycline and truly believe that Adamycine and Teramycine are solution to everything. If the cattle are coughing, adamycine must be the answer. If the cattle are not eating well, adamycine would take care of the appetite problem. If the cattle are limping a little, adamycine would definitely stop the limping. Yes, in the Maasai land, adamycine is the answer to everything. People here inject adamycine to cattle as if animal is suffering from tetracycline deficiency… My vet friends call this syndrome ‘adamosis’ or ‘teramosis’. This belief is the major contributing factor to development of tetracycline resistance in this area. ‘Please do not inject adamycine just because the cattle is limping!’, I exclaim. Then I spend the next one hour trying to explain why adamycine no longer working like it used to do in the past.

No responses yet

Category: Livestock | Date: Mar 20 2007 | By: admin

It is really great that the Mara Conservancy is paying compensation for livestock killed by wild carnivores. Loss of cattle to a Maasai is not just an economical loss, but cattle have great sentimental value to Maasai people.

Let me first talk about the economic loss. Say, leopard killed a goat. Price depends on size and sex, but one goat can range from Ksh 1,000- 2,500 (USD 15-37). This is in a country where average income is Ksh 4,000 (USD 60), so the loss is quite significant. The price of a cattle also depends on size and sex, but it is on higher side. One cattle can range from Ksh 10,000 – 30,000 (USD 150 - 450). This is the price for the endemic Zebu cattle. Other breed such as Sahiwal (dual milk-meat breed) is much more expensive, where one bull costs up to Ksh 70,000 (USD 1,030) and most Maasai buy the Sahiwal from Laikipia region (adding transport cost). Cattle is an asset in this community.

How about the sentimental value of cattle? It is hard for us Westerners to fully understand the Maasai sentiment towards their cattle. Maybe comparing cattle to another commodity might allow us to understand better. The closest thing which I can compare a bull is to a luxury automobile, something like Ferrari. Maasai men are very proud of their prized bulls. When one buys a bull, especially big Sahiwal bull, he can even stop you on the road and asks you to come take a look at his new bull. He would walk around his bull and explains to you that his bull got a nice horn shape, good configuration, how heavy it is and how much he spent purchasing this bull. He meticulously dips/sprays his prized bull, deworms it, at all cost. Man may not willingly give food allowance to their family (much to wives’ complaints), but he would not have second thought when he buys drugs for his bull. In the morning, a man spends time staring at his bull before it goes out to herding, appreciating every aspect of his amazing bull. Simply staring at his prized bull brings joy in man’s heart. He feels like showing off his bull to the entire community, even to a muzungu (white) vet. When man’s prized bull gets killed by wild carnivore, Maasai feeling of devastation and anger is equivalent to that of having a new Ferrari smashed when you night parked in the city.

Magnificent Boran bulls.

5 responses so far

Category: Livestock | Date: Mar 19 2007 | By: admin

Ranger Tobiko getting ready to catch the bull

Excellent catch by Tobiko

Castration begins

No responses yet