The Benue State Government has received an anthrax vaccine donation from philanthropist and Tito Group President Asiwaju Isaac Akinkunmi for the immunization of 5,000 livestock in the state.
The donation was made to the State Task Force on Anthrax Prevention and Control, which is headed by Dr Edward Amali, the Director of Livestock Services in the Benue State Ministry of Agriculture, under Chief Akinkunmi Weekend's direction.
Chief Akinkunmi, who presented the donation at the Ministry of Agriculture's headquarters in Makurdi, stated that his company, which processes milk and makes yoghurt with milk, "decided to set up a ranch for backward integration, to produce milk locally to reduce the importation of milk to its barest minimum.
“So we therefore keep a lot of cattle on a ranching basis because we have embraced ranching as a way of raising livestock and we are finding it very rewarding.
“And on the arrival of Anthrax in the country we found that if we do not move quickly and it invades our farm it will be very devastating. We therefore approached the Veterinary Research Institute in Vom and procured vaccine and vaccinated all our cattle. And we extended this gesture to the communities in our immediate surroundings.
“So we thought it wise, when we heard that the government had constituted a taskforce, to control and prevent Anthrax from entering Benue state, to procure the Anthrax vaccine and donate to the taskforce as part of our own humble donation to the work of the taskforce.
“We are therefore donating vaccines for the vaccination of 5,000 livestock in the state.
Ours is to lend our humble support to the efforts of the taskforce and the state government.”
Dr. Amali thanked Titi Group for the donation and recalled that the company had supported schools and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the state among other interventions. He urged other cooperative organizations and those in the livestock sector to follow the donor and his company's example.
