Farmers count losses as Swine Flu outbreak kills pigs in seven counties

Kiambu has been hard hit by swine flu outbreak. [File, Standard]

Pig farmers in the country are calling for urgent measures to address the swine flu outbreak that has ravaged their stocks and left farmers counting losses running into millions of shillings.

The farmers have further raised concerns that pig farming is becoming a loss-making venture, with rising feed costs and low market prices costing them a fortune.

In the last couple of months, swine flu outbreak has been reported in seven counties, killing tens of pigs, with Kiambu being the most affected.

Damaris Njoroge, the proprietor of Buffalo View Farm in Naivasha, said the outbreak had wiped out her stock, with no vaccine in sight.

She said that had lost tens of her piglets to the disease over the last year, which has forced her to scale down her production amid rising costs of feed in the market.

“I have lost tens of my piglets because of the swine fever outbreak, with the cost of pig feed increasing from Sh2,800 to Sh3,400 per 70 kg bag, which has increased the cost of production over the last year," she said.

Speaking to the Press during a tour of her farm organized by Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (Kalro), Njoroge said she had turned to the organisation for the best pigs in the market.

Another farmer, Mwanya Migande, said the outbreak was one of the major challenges facing farmers, raising concerns that the government had not provided an effective vaccine to treat the disease.

Migande said he had turned to producing his own feed supplements to cushion him from months of incurring losses due to the rising cost of pig feed.

He further said that pig farming was becoming a challenge due to declining market prices, adding that he was opting for value-added pig products to sustain his business.

Migande lauded Karlo for helping farmers secure the right pig breeds that guaranteed farmers a return on their investments.

Karlo animal scientist for pigs research programme Benedict Odour, said they had embarked on developing the latest innovations and technologies to help farmers overcome some of the challenges they were currently facing.

Odour noted that pork consumption had, over the years, grown rapidly, with the country meeting only 23,000 metric tonnes against a market demand of 38,000 metric tonnes as of last year's data.

He said Karlo had been supported by the World Bank through the Food Resilience Project, which aims to help farmers access reliable information on pig production, quality feed supplements, and market trends.

Odour revealed that pork products from the country were on demand in Uganda, Tanzania and Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates.

He, however, said the outbreak of swine fever was a major challenge currently facing farmers, noting that there was no vaccine due to the disease's mutation, and advising farmers to implement robust biosecurity measures to contain the outbreak and avoid losses.