We have completed our month-long VETCAP (Veterinary Civic Action Project) at Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Gulu & Umuru Districts and are now in Kampala awaiting transport back to Camp Lemonier, Djibouti. We worked at 41 sites over 20 treatment days in this, the third VETCAP in northern Uganda this year, the 1st in Jan-Feb and the 2nd in Mar-Apr. The response to the cattle treatments at the initial missions was excellent based on a sampling of weight gains estimated by heart girth measurements.
Our U.S. military team from the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa was joined by faculty and students from the veterinary school at Makerere University and Veterinary Officers from the Uganda Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry & Fisheries. We treated a total of 78,604 animals including 23,903 cattle (sleeping sickness prophylaxis, deworming and external parasite treatment), 23,394 poultry (individual birds vaccinated against New Castle Disease Virus, primarily chickens but also many ducks), 14,061 goats & sheep (deworming and external parasite treatment), and 2,400 pigs (dewormed as individuals). We also vaccinated about 4,000 dogs for rabies.
CPT Amanda Coenen and I were the two U.S. Army Veterinary Corps officers on this VETCAP. We concentrated on preparing the pharmaceuticals at our two sites, Amanda with "Team A" and I with "Team B." Both of us focused on cattle since that was the most labor-intensive part of the work at each site, involving herding and physically dealing with animals ranging in size from less than 50 kg up to >500 kg, many being Ankole cattle with LARGE horns.
There was a surprisingly large number of intact males. Bulls are used as plow animals and relatively few are castrated. The "cattle crushes" in which the treatments were administered were constructed at each site by the villagers in the IDP camps from local materials, primarily logs and limbs from trees held together with nails, rope, and in some cases bark. It goes without saying that this was a challenge.
This area in northern Uganda has been contested between the Ugandan Peoples Defense Forces and the rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony. The LRA is still active in the Southern Sudan and neighboring countries; they have abducted thousands of children as "child soldiers," causing the rural populace to move into IDP camps so that the UPDF could protect them. In addition to armed attacks, ambushes and raids, during the conflict mines were used by both sides, resulting in the loss of life and limbs by the people.
Many of the people are now moving back into their former homes and the population of domestic animals is increasing, but the IDP camps still have many people in residence.
I will attempt to attach a few pictures but the number will be restricted because of internet limitations until we return to our base in the Horn of Africa.
All the best!
Jim
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