VN October 2023

Vetnuus | October 2023 48 A NEW CHALLENGE An exciting call came in from an old student of mine. I had lectured him when he was a final year student at the University of Natal, Agricultural Faculty, in the mid 70’s He wanted me to accompany him to a farm in Gabon, West Africa. The farm which was a government concession was over 1,5 million hectares in extent and was severely run down for various reasons. At one stage it must have been a very impressive set-up with beautiful handling facilities, well set out throughout the property. The laboratory would make some of our regional laboratories feel inadequate. The cattle numbers had been over 20,000 breeding cows before problems arose. The predominant breed was the very little-known nDama; an animal that had been there for over 4000 years and which had reason to claim the origins of the current-day Jersey’s. It, and the Jersey have a gland on the lower aspect of the tail, and they are the only two breeds to have this gland. Hence the suggested link. We flew into Libreville and had to spend a few nights in a local hotel due to the Covid regulations which were extremely strict. After having passed all the necessary tests we could proceed to the ranch which was nearly two hours south of the Gabonese capital. We settled into beautiful accommodation on the banks of the Nyanga river - a dream setting just as one would expect in tropical Africa; the fish eagles in the river below; African grey parrots aplenty in the palm trees, and in the evening elephants in the river and the sound of restless chimpanzees in the trees along the river. We sat down with management to hear of their problems. A large number of cattle had been flown in from the Congo to increase numbers. The inherent diseases were all the tick-borne problems, which we were accustomed to in South Africa and Sleeping Sickness proved to be another major problem. The environment was ideal for Tsetse flies and they happily transmitted Trypanosomiasis to the cattle. But those were conditions which had been there for years and even though some adaption has occurred, the disease was still extremely erosive. Some aspects of the ranch were extremely useful in disease control not the least of which were the distances between herds – up to 40 kilometres in some cases. This made isolation and quarantine very easy. The fencing, although not that good, was adequate for the purpose. One major problem was the camp size and the vegetation where the Hyperenia was often well over 2 meters tall and very dense. Cattle were very difficult to muster and would often go weeks between counts or dipping. The Lung sickness had virtually run its course by the time I got there but the Trypanosomiasis was rampant and was causing severe erosive declines in all the cattle. The previous owners had attempted to introduce indigenous breeds such as Boran, Nguni, Brahman and some Senepol. These cattle all did very poorly and were hat racks when we went through the herds. None of the crossbreds were managing and many had condition scores of 2. Life plus 24 without parole Mike Lowry Mike Lowry has been in veterinary practice for "life plus 23" years. In this column, he shares his experiences and opinions . Regulars I Life plus 23 + 24 Tsetse fly Natural Habitat