The County Assembly of Busia has unanimously adopted a report on the revival of Cattle Dips in Busia County.
This comes three decades since they collapsed after the Government introduced the structural adjustments program and privatized veterinary services in the early 1990s.
The adoption of a motion moved by Malaba Central MCA Bernard Papa now gives the department of Agriculture and animal resources mandate to revive cattle dips in the county.
Papa said the adoption of his motion will give rise to the revival of cattle dips and repossess grabbed cattle dips land.
He added that the cattle dips will help farmers who can’t afford high charges of spraying their animals.
Contributing to the motion before adoption, the Agriculture committee chairman Joab Oteba said Busia County has a high prevalence of tick-borne diseases such as East Coast Fever.
He added that the control the control of ticks and Tsetse flies is key in improving livestock.
He said spraying the animals using the hand sprayer has not done much in controlling the ticks which attack the animals on hidden parts making it impossible for the pesticides to effectively reach them.
In his submissions to the committee, County Executive Committee Member for Agriculture Dr Moses Osia said the collapse of the cattle dips was caused by lack of community sensitization before handing over of the cattle dips.
Other factors included lack of budgetary allocations for dip maintenance, lack of proper ownership of the cattle dips, laxity of farmers in availing their animals for spraying and high cost of maintenance of cattle dips in terms of acaricide re-filling and structural maintenance.
Dr Osia said the department intends to construct nine crush-pens for restraining animals during vaccinations, mass disease testing and surveillance, restraining during the breed upgrading and artificial insemination services.