WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2015 5

4 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2015

SEEDS OF GOLD. profile

Daily Monitor

Daily Monitor

www.monitor.co.ug

www.monitor.co.ug

Uganda scientists develop poultry vaccine

mini farming>

How a hen bred goats and is still going strong

BY PATIENCE AHIMBISIBWE
pahimbisibwe@ug.nationmedia.com

he was gifted to one of Beatrice

Kagoyas grandchildren by an
uncle. As everyone celebrated
that they were going to have a special
meal that eveningchicken sauce, the
granddaughter instead insisted that
the chicken be given a second lease of
life.
The hen was then relocated to rural
Kagondo in Kibuku District from Kampala. At the time of her arrival, there
had been an outbreak of Newcastle
disease in the neighbourhood.

Safe from disease

Luckily, a Kukustar vaccine, which
boosts poultry immunity to resist the
disease was on trial in the area. So the
hen was vaccinated with it. The results
paid off as it didnt contract the disease. My grandchild brought this hen
to the village. We gave it a vaccine to
prevent it from getting Newcastle disease and three years on, it has never
fallen sick while others in the neighbourhood are dying, Ms Kagoya said
in an interview.
Two months after surviving the

Above, a farmer inspects the chicken on his farm. Right above, Dr Nantulya, one of the scientists who developed the vaccine shows how to use it. Right below, researchers conduct an experiment in the laboratory. PHOTOS BY
STEPHEN OTAGE

Many poultry farmers in Uganda lose their chicken to a host

of diseases but Newscastle disease is the most deadly as it is
rampant. Now, a vaccine is available to put the disease at bay.
BY PATIENCE AHIMBISIBWE
pahimbisibwe@ug.nationmedia.com

here he comes from, when a

child is born, the elders would
give him or her a hen. When it
laid eggs, hatched them, and the chicks
grew, they would be bartered for goats.
When the number of goats increased,
they would be exchanged for a calf.
Dr Vinand Nantulya explains that the
essence of this tradition is that as the
child grows, he or she would learn to
take care of their own farm, and use
the earnings to meet various needs.

What informed the research

I come from a rural background
with parents who did not go to school
but appreciated education. They gave
me all the support I needed, Dr Nantulya recalls. He learnt to appreciate
the culture but his frustration was that
more often than not, the chicken would

succumb to fowl diseases. In particular, the seasonal infectious outbreaks

of Newcastle disease.
It is caused by a virus and is 100 per
cent fatal in chicks and 60 to 90 per
cent in adult chicken.
This is the background that informed
Dr Nantulyas research on veterinary
diseases, which would later influence
his career.
After 45 years of service in various
positions and international postings,
he returned to Uganda. He partnered
with Dr George Mukiibi to form Brentec Vaccines Company in 2009. I carried this childhood story. I am a medical doctor who didnt fully practise
but developed interest in veterinary
vaccines. This is the link to help farmers out of poverty by [dealing with]
the diseases that threaten their [livestock], he says.
The pair has successfully developed
a vaccine, called Kukustar, against

Newscastle disease and are set to roll

it out in September. This is a step in
the effort to tackle other livestock diseases.
There is no treatment anywhere in
the world for Newcastle disease. What
we have is preventive. The vaccine is
not a medicine. It is not for treating
Newcastle disease. It is for protecting
chicken, which are not yet infected. If
your chicken have started dying, dont
buy the vaccine because it is too late,
Dr Nantulya warns.
How it was done
He adds: Every year, there are outbreaks of Newcastle disease, which
claim the poultry. We intend to set up
a manufacturing plant to produce vaccines for livestock diseases. We have
started with this vaccine and we shall
continue as times goes on.
The study took the researchers 16
weeks. According to Dr Nantulya, a
sample of 50 birds was identified and
30 of them vaccinated with a single
dose of Kukustar. These were put in
a separate unit while the other 20 did
not receive the vaccine.

Fourteen weeks into the experiment,

15 of the vaccinated chicken were taken
back to the same unit as those that did
not receive the vaccine.
The unit was then infected with
Newcastle disease-causing virus. The
15 vaccinated birds remained symptom-free as the others that were kept
as a control unit.
Two weeks after the infestation, all
the 20 birds, which had not been vaccinated, died.
After this trial, other samples were
taken for tests at Makerere University
College of Veterinary Medicine and
the results were positive after eight
months of observation.
The vaccine later passed the National Drug Authority and African
Union Centre of Livestock tests. After
this, it was taken to Mbale District for
a pilot trial.
With successes registered, the company has the capacity to produce 100
million doses of the vaccine in a year.
But, for the start, their target is 50
million this year. The farmers can now
access the vaccine at Shs100 per dose
per chicken.

We have established a plant. Our

dream is to go big. We can produce vaccine for 100 million birds per year. Our
next stage is introducing other poultry
vaccines and to make vaccines for goat
and cattle diseases, he says.
All is well...
Given the expenses of putting up
structures like laboratories, Uganda
Industrial Research Institute offered
to host the company under its business
incubation programme. But Dr Nantulya says they should be able to acquire
their own home in two years time.
So far, $1.5m (about Shs5.2b) has
been invested in the research. This
included ensuring that the lab meets
international standards, procuring
the right equipment and recruiting 10
staff, who were trained to develop the
standard operating procedures.
The problem with our banks is that
their interest rates are too high. You
cant do business that way. If loans had
friendly interest rates, we would have
started long ago but we are looking at
investors, Dr Nantulya shares his frustration but all is well that ends well.

ABOUT THE VACCINE AND HOW TO APPLY IT

Advantages of vaccine
Unlike imported vaccines which you
have to carry in ice, the Kukustar vaccine is stable at room temperature. It can
last for four days after it has been mixed.
When it is still in its powder form, it can
last 30 days. This minimises losses as
many farmers neither have a source of
electricity nor refrigerators.
It is a live vaccine
Does not cause any illness.
Not harmful to human beings; you can
even slaughter and eat the chicken after
injecting the vaccine

How to administer the vaccine

A box has 20 vials with 5,000 doses. Get
one vial, which has the vaccine in powder
form and mix it with water. Use a dropper to apply the vaccine on chickens eye.
This is protective for four months, after
which you vaccinate again. But if there
are many birds, you use can do it through
water. However, it should not be tap water because it contains chlorine, which
destroys the vaccine.
If you must use tap water, boil to evaporate the chlorine. Otherwise, it is advisable to use spring water.

slaughter chamber in 2012, the hen

produced 12 chicks bringing their total
number to 13.
This hens reproduction has proved
to her new household how profitable
livestock can be in a family. Because
of her value, the hen was christened
Dorothy.
Improve quality
Seven months after receiving Dorothy into the home, chicken population
continued to rise. For instance, of the
12 chickens born, five were female.
These joined their mother in laying
eggs months later, each hatching not
less than 10 chicks.
The seven roosters were sold between Shs15,000 to Shs20,000 each
and the proceedings used to purchase a
goat, which was pregnant at the time.
The price of a goat is between
Shs100,000 to Shs200,000.
Today, Ms Kagoya boasts of seven
goats in her compound as a result of
Dorothy, the hen she received three
years ago.
I use the money I get from selling
eggs and the chicken to buy soap, salt
and pay fees for some grandchildren I
live with, Ms Kagoya said.

Dorothy is a sign of how birds can

improve the quality of rural peasants
by providing nutritious food (eggs and
meat) and an income to pay fees.
But all this can be achieved by keeping the birds healthy. According to
the vaccine researchers headed by Dr
Vinand Nantulya, the increased survival rates will give rise to a stable
flock size and source of income from
sale of eggs and birds.
He said the vaccines, which have
been available have not been friendly
to rural farmers because their storage and transportation requires a cold
chain for delivery to the end user.
Enabling the farmer
This makes the vaccine susceptible
to survival since not many farmers
have refrigerators. However, the invention of Kukustar vaccine which is
thermo stable as it can survive at room
temperature will easily be accessed by
farmers in most parts of the country
to protect chicken against the vicious
outbreaks of the highly fatal Newcastle
disease.
This will improve the survival rate of
poultry; clearly enabling the farmer to
fight poverty.