Authorities of Warrap State are mobilizing and will train more than 200 community animal health workers in preparation for animal vaccination campaigns across the state.

The campaign targets the vaccination and treatment of over one million animals in the next three months. Early this month the vaccination and treatment campaign kicked off in Gogrial West County with a target of 140 thousand animals. The exercise was supported by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Officials say partner organizations including VSF-Germany, The organization for Children Harmony, Lukluk Community Association for Development, and Marial Lou Livestock Training Institute could not start the campaign in Gogrial West due to logistical challenges. 

Angelo Kom Agoth is a livestock officer for VSF-Germany, one of the organizations tasked with vaccination and treatment of livestock in three counties of Warrap state.

"Currently we are doing mobilization of community animal health workers for refresher training for two days and after completing this refresher training we will immediately start vaccination. We are targeting 150,000 heads of cattle. Each county has got 50,000 heads of cattle. We are targeting 50,000 heads of cattle in Tonj North, 50,000 head of cattle in Gogrial East, and the same in Gogrial West," he said.

Kom added that they will vaccinate and treat about 60,000 sheep and goats, about 495,000 poultry, and 210 dogs in the three counties.

The livestock manager for The Organization for Children Harmony or (TOCH) William Wek Bol says they target more than 130,000 livestock in Tonj South County.

"In Tonj South generally we are targeting around 131,400 and that is the total livestock including cattle, goat and different species. First of all, we are doing mobilization now and the mobilization meeting will end this week and then after training now we will deploy the community animal health workers and then we start vaccination immediately," Wek said.

An official from the Lukluk Community Association for Development, Abel Amet Amet, says they will vaccinate and treat animals in Twic and Gogrial East counties.

"The overall target is 300,000 livestock for vaccination and 40,500 different types of livestock for treatment services that bring to the total of 341,180 both vaccination and treatment services under this program in the two counties, 340,000 are for both but cattle now is only 200,000 for both two counties, 90,000 in Twic county and 110,000 for Gogrial East county," he said.

According to the director-general for the now-defunct Gogrial state Ministry of Animal Resources and Fisheries, Salvatore Mayar, the Marial Lou Livestock Training Instituteinstitute will also vaccinate animals in the greater Tonj area.

"When you add 120,000 plus 90 plus 80 you get 290,0000 heads of cattle in greater Tonj under the project of Marial Lou Livestock Training Institute and 100,000 sheep and goats in greater Tonj and also 60,000 poultry and 300 hundred dogs, this is now the target for Marial Lou Livestock Training Institute," Mayar said.

The officials pointed out that the vaccination campaign will be hampered in areas cut-off by floods, notably part of Gogrial East, Twic, and Tonj East counties.

Some of the diseases that the livestock are being vaccinated against according to key players include anthrax and hemorrhagic septicemia (HS), and contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), and sheep and goat pox.

According to the national ministry of livestock and fisheries, South Sudan’s livestock population is estimated at 12 million cattle, 20 million sheep, and 25 million goats.