The Magnificient Ankoles

June 19

It was a full day when Dr. William picked us up to go with him to vaccinate cattle in the local region. We were vaccinating for foot and mouth disease, a virus that has been eradicated in Canada but remains an annual problem in Uganda during the dry season. There was an outbreak at a local farm and he was doing a ring vaccination in the surrounding herds.

The morning was quite toasty and we worked up a bit of a sweat running the first batch of cattle through the wooden chutes. It was a pleasant relief to handle the vaccine bottles since they had to be kept cold in a cooler with ice. The fist cattle we worked with were Friesens, very similar to Holstein cows from home. While we had no problem working with these cattle, we were a little intimidated when the second herd was run through. These were the famous ankole cattle, whose horns are so long they dwarfed some of the shorter members of our team. They even posed some problems to the cattle themselves since they couldn't fit into the chute due to the massive width of their appendages and posed a bit of an occupational hazard to Dr. William.

We also visited two other farms that which consisted of Ankole/Friesen crosses, which combine the hardiness of the local breed with the increased production traits of the latter. Our team had a chance at trying our hands at vaccinating and by the end of the day we were covered in a nice smattering of feces and felt like real vet students again. Thank goodness for the stain removing power of the local brand of laundry detergent, "Omo".