The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) has unveiled new poultry vaccines with a longer shelf life, and which do not require refrigeration to store, making it easy for almost 80 per cent of poultry farmers in the country to effectively prevent common deadly viral diseases.
Dubbed thermos stable, these vaccines are capable of withstanding fluctuating temperatures, while still maintaining their potency unlike ordinary vaccines in the market which must be stored in refrigerators lest they become ineffective.
The vaccines, which were developed by the Kenya veterinary Vaccines Production Institute (KEVEVAPI), in collaboration with KALRO’s Non-Ruminant Research Centre, are made from superior protein molecules, making them resistant to heat, light, radiation and changes in the environment.
According to Dr. David Miano of KALRO Kakamega, thermos stable vaccines for various poultry vaccines including Newcastle, Fowl Typhoid, fowl Pox and Gumboro are already in the market with 3 million doses already sold by yesterday.
The innovation of these high tech vaccines is good news especially to smallholder farmers and agrovet operators in rural Kenya who lack access and cannot continuous supply of energy source like electricity required refrigeration. A recent World Bank survey shows that only 23 per cent of the country’s population is connected to the power grid with rural Kenya which accounts for 76 per cent of chicken in the country registering only 5 per cent.
A 2014 study, vaccine handling and administration among poultry farmers in Nigeria published in the Scholars Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences shows that 50.83 per cent of respondents in rural areas experience vaccine fail on their poultry, an aspect mostly blamed on contamination due to poor storage measures.
A dose of these unique vaccines costs only Sh2 and can be bought either from KALRO offices in Naivasha and Kakamega or at the Kenya veterinary Vaccines Production Institute in Kabete.