Veterinary Service Delivery in the Pastoral Regions, the Case of Baringo County, Kenya.

Abstract

Baringo County falls largely in the categories of arid, semi-arid lands, receiving an average annual rainfall of 600mm. the communities are mainly pastoralists, keeping cattle, sheep, goats, camels and donkeys.

It is recognized that livestock productivity is generally low due to among other factors, poor veterinary service delivery due to inadequate numbers of veterinary staff on the ground, and poor funding.

A cross-sectional survey was carried out using a questionnaire administered randomly amongst 60 smallholder households in Nginyang and Marigat divisions.  The objective was to establish and rank the most commonly treated diseases in the small ruminants, the frequency of anthelmintic use, and the service providers.

The results of the study show that a lot of emphasis has been on provision of drugs with little effort on development of diagnostic and surveillance services.  With nine qualified veterinary officers and 26 paravets the government was generally thin on the ground.

The role of NGO’s and CBO’s as service providers is increasing in ASAL’s.  It is recommended that surveillance and disease reporting systems need to be developed to comply with international des epizooties conditions for international trade, especially in provision of basic data on important livestock diseases.

Key words: Arid-semi arid lands, veterinary services.