Friday, August 1, 2008

On the way to the day’s work site we stop at the Ministry office and Mama Safe gives me the report from “Mkwakwani Vet Care” that the blood sample we gave to Dr. Shimbolu yesterday showed “few Theileria prioplasms.” As it turns out that cow had been vaccinated for East Coast Fever (I had noticed a circular ear “button” (looked like an RFID tag from the US) but did not notice that it was the evidence of ECF vaccination. Because of this status, the recommendation was to treat with “30% OTC” (300 mg/ml oxytetratcycline) or “inject with “(1) Butalex /Parvequone and (2) Oxytetracyclines.” Mama Safe explains that this recommendation is because of the previous vaccination.

We had treated the animal with injectable OTC (note: it was 100 mg/ml; we don’t have any Tetradure or 300 mg/ml) at 4 mg/kg as per label dose, leaving two additional treatments for the following two days. Our references on ECF vaccination state that the modified live organisms are injected simultaneously with oxytetracycline or followed seven days later by parveqone or buparvequone. Not having any clinical experience with ECF, we estimate that our treatment of that cow with OTC was according to the recommendations and leave it at that.

We go to another new site today which is a good ride from Tanga. We stop on the way to pick up a village elder who is dressed in a long robe and has short, white hair. He looks every bit the wise man. We arrive at an area with a circular corral constructed of acacia branches, about 20 yards in diameter with a “crush” leading off one end with no funnel or narrowing where the crush joins the circle. Trouble to come? We are accompanied by two mini-buses of about a dozen midshipmen from the US Naval Academy who are visiting CJFT-HOA and Tanzania. They visited a well drilling site yesterday and are to spend part of the day with us.

We set up the vehicles to the side of the crush and the Tanzania’s start running the cattle through. I am asked to give the middies a briefing on what we are doing. There are not many questions although a few arise during the briefing and after as they observe. The first question was about how thin the animals appear, to which I respond that they are in good shape for Zebu cattle. Most are in pretty good body condition, the grazing not having been too bad thus far this year. They are asked to participate in herding the animals, which three or four of them do and are pretty game.

The amount of whipping of the cattle that the Tanzanians are engaged in is clearly worrisome to a few of the middies, as it has been to us. I explain that this is their way of doing business and we have not set this VETCAP up as an educational program in cattle handling, although we might want to do that as part of a future effort to promote the faster working of the animals. One female midshipman asks about how animals are slaughtered and I confirm from LTC Machera that the slaughter process is universally of halal type by cutting the throat. One middie asks if we are pregnancy checking; he had some background on a ranch somewhere I am told. Dr. Machera mentions to the group of middies that we are also interested in maintaining a healthy supply of animals to provide food for the people and to reduce zoonotic diseases. The middies depart by late morning.

At midday CPT Coenen and I are asked to conduct an ante-mortem exam on a 150 kg heifer who is to be slaughtered. She is tied by the legs and in lateral recumbancy. She appears healthy and is slaughtered by having her neck cut and bled, which mercifully goes pretty fast. We conduct a post mortem exam and she is clean. Many of the Tanzanians gather wood for a fire with four posts set at each corner about two feet in height and from which a frame is made of green wood for the meat to cook. The first pieces put on the “grill” are liver, kidney and tongue, followed by muscle. It is brought first to us for sampling and is not bad, especially with a little salt which they have.

The village elder who had been present yesterday when we had examined the cow with the fractured metatarsus speaks with me. He speaks very good and deliberate English, better than other Tanzanians I had encountered yet. He expressed the opinion that the advice we gave to slaughter the cow was very good and he appreciated that we had given it. That made me feel much better about the previous day’s business, having seen the disappointment in the faces of those responsible for that animal.

It turns out that all of the cattle we are working today are owned by one man, the only one so far who I have seen wearing a cowboy hat, or what could pass for one. He is on the ground herding with the others and is a somewhat larger man than the average. MAJ Azes (sp?), one of the physicians from the Tanzanian People’s Defense Forces, tells me that he began with only three cows. He is obviously very smart or very lucky, or a combination of both. He also may have other means of livelihood but I can’t determine that.

Toward the end of the day the animals, which are tending to be larger, are not moving out of the circular corral and into the “crush” lane very well. It’s taking a long time to finish up. They try to cut out a group from those in the corral and herd them over to the crush entry, which typically ends up with many rejoining the main group despite being hectored and beaten vigorously by a number of stick-wielding Tanzanians. The problem is that they can’t readily see the small opening to the “crush” lane as an escape route, and until we get some of the workers to step away from the other side of the “fence” right by that entry they are also seeing people in their “flight zone.” It is one of the more frustrating episodes we have had when it comes to seeing the consequences of poor facility design. The irony is that the cattle are largely contained by the brush corral and the stick fences, which the Tanzanians admirably repair with strips of bark “twine” as the fence becomes weak during the day.

I decide to make the conduct of a cattle handling course a long term goal, and will make efforts to see if we can make that happen in the future. I predict it will take a few years and that the best way to do it would be through the Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture, which has good extensionists like Fred Manju and Mama Maud Safe who have worked with us every day. Dr. Shimbolu, the Ministry veterinarian who we have met with twice, told me that they conduct training for these laymen every few months, which is apparently effective given my estimation of their understanding of the diseases we are working with. My impression is that Tanzania is ahead of the other countries we will visit, including Kenya and Uganda with regard to its Ministry infrastructure and extension system, so it would be the place to start.

I note that a few cows have the yellow ear button that the ECF vaccinated cow we treated a few days ago had. Closer exam of these tags shows them to have “ECF vaccinated” printed on the edge along with an ID number. We close up shop at day’s end having worked between 1200 and 1300 total cattle. I confirm from our Tananian PDF physicians that “sleeping sickness” in humans is not a disease of high incidence now and that controlling tsetse flies in cattle is a way to reduce the disease in people; they also express that cattle can be a reservoir for some trypanosomes that affect people. Upon return to the hotel we learn that Saturday CPT Coenen and I are to accompany LTC Pope and MSG Holland to conduct a PDSS (Pre-Deployment Site Survey) with LTC Machera and Mama Safe to the sites that the next VETCAP phase will work at in November.