Kampala, Uganda - October 16, 2008

Dear Family & Friends:

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

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Mujambo (Hello),

On the way to breakfast the spider monkeys are on the roof of the passageway between our wing of the hotel and the lobby and dining room/bar.


I stop to take a couple of more pictures of a mother and baby suspended on her chest, and another who is eating mango or papaya right outside the window. The light is not good so the flash automatically goes off, scaring them. Malaria prevention day for me so I take my weekly mefloaquine (Lariam) pill in the morning with breakfast.

We depart at usual time, stop at Ministry office to pick up Mama Safe, Freddy and the others and head back south to Pongwe, taking the “shortcut route” to the site that we departed on yesterday. A few cattle are there, supposedly restricted by arrangement to no more than 100 today at the “crush” site. We are to concentrate on goats and sheep, which we do. We begin by administering FMD vaccine (2 ml rather than the cow 3 ml dose SQ), ivermectin injectable, and Drop-On pour on deltamethrin. Quite a “goat rope” as the Massai capture them by their hind or front legs, one to three at a time and bring them up to us to treat and then be marked with a crayon. We adjust the dose of the ivermectin and pour on to the smaller size of the animals, some are babies and others more mature and of some size, including a few Billies. The ivermectin sting some of them quite badly when administered SQ, with a few running off and rolling on the ground or twisting their necks pretty wildly.

I find one goat who is three-legged lame, not sure if it relates to the SQ injection it obviously received (blood from injection site on neck) or from injury received at same or earlier time. It would bear weight on that leg if the other leg was held up but went back to non-weight bearing lameness when let go. Could not palpate a fracture or dislocation, so I gave that goat to over to the Lord and moved on. We end the day pretty early, about noon or so.

Two sick cows to look at. A mature milk cow with fever of 105.9 degrees F in good flesh and “sick for three weeks.” CPT Coenen and I do a physical exam: lungs clear, HR = 72 BPM, not anemic on vuvlar or oral mucoas and no signs of vesicles or erosions; peripheral lymph nodes not enlarged above those we feel on all the cattle that we have felt. She is not pregnant; her right rear quarter is hard but not inflamed and the milk is not abnormal. We treat with injectable oxytetracylcline and give enough to repeat the treatment for two more days, and give a multivitamin injection.

The other animal is a calf about 180 kg who is weak and has clear nasal discharge. The pre-scapular lymph nodes are very enlarged, about the size of a small orange. One of the animal health workers points out that the parotid lymph nodes are also enlarged. Temperature is 102.9 degrees F, not clinically anemic and no erosions/ulcerations/vesicles on oral mucosa. We diagnose East Coast Fever and treat with buparvanone (Bulalex). Based on what Dr. Mwossa told me, if we were being paid for this call we should get it now; the chance for survival is not good. We also give that one over to the Lord and to her Massai owner, and then depart. We took a blood sample in an EDTA tube from the cow and intended to do a smear to look for RBC parasites but managed to not get that done today; will try tomorrow and perhaps add ECF treatment to her if we have the chance to get it to the owner.

Kwaheri! ("Good Bye" in Swahili)