livestock Diarrhea in Afghanistan

 Written by: Mir Aqa Atabar

Most rural residents of Afghanistan keep cattle and sheep. During the winter, they keep them in barns and feed them with wheat straw and livestock foods. At the beginning of the spring, the livestock owners take them to the pasture and some sheep and goats face diarrhea and a number of them die from this disease.

The writer/producer AEPO has talked to some livestock owners in Takahar, Balkh, and Kabul provinces about this issue.

Abdul Baqi, a resident of Balkh province says: there is a kind of bitter bushes in our area grows at the beginning of spring. When livestock eats it, it would face with diarrhea. Last spring, I last my three-sheep due to this disease.

Mohebullah says: at the beginning of spring, direct sun rays cause livestock diarrhea. I had 50 sheep and lost 12 of them due to diarrhea in last summer.

A veterinarian, Hadayatullah says: Livestock diarrhea is a poisoning seasonal disease. The virus of this disease is in the intestines of livestock and with a sudden change of feed from dry hay to grass, the bacteria begins to function and affects animal’s brain and it might become mad and might die from diarrhea.

Treatment and prevention:

Mohammad Fahim, a resident of Malik village, Chahar Asyab district of Kabul province says:  we mix wheat straw and green chop and give them to livestock and the livestock do not get diarrhea.

Mohammad Khan, a resident of Takhar province says: one month before the arrival of spring, we apply the vaccine of diarrhea to our goats and sheep and all of them are safe from diarrhea.

Hedayatullah confirms Mohammad Khan’s opinion and says that if livestock owners apply diarrhea vaccine to their herd of sheep and goats, they would prevent them from livestock diarrhea and if any livestock affects the disease, it would be treated easily.