Eddie Koch
Conservation authorities are so worried about tuberculosis (TB) in buffalos that they are preparing to shoot thousands of the animals in Lowveld game reserves. Rangers in KwaZulu-Natal’s Hluhluwe Umfolozi Park have already begun culling infected animals.
Thousands of buffalo in the Kruger Park have been infected by TB, originally spread by domestic cattle on the park’s borders, and there is considerable evidence that the illness is spreading to other species.
There is also a potential danger to human health, particularly the lower socio-economic groups of people clustered on the borders of the infected parks.
Some of the country’s top ecologists and veterinarians attended a recent symposium – organised jointly by the South African National Parks, the Mpumalanga Directorate of Veterinary Services and the Mpumalanga Parks Board – on how to deal with the problem.
Dewalt Keet, senior veterinarian in the Kruger Park’s directorate of animal health, says the park management will spend the next 12 months conducting intensive research to establish more precisely what impact the disease is having on the mortality of various species. Kruger authorities will then consider shooting out the most heavily infected herds.
Bruce Bryden, senior ranger in the park, told delegates it would be possible to shoot thousands of buffalo if this was the only way to contain the spread of the disease, but this would involve a huge and expensive logistical operation to dispose of the carcasses.
The Mpumalanga Parks Board is also preparing to either eliminate the entire herd of 350 to 400 buffalos in its Mthethomusha Game Reserve, or to shoot the most heavily infected herds.
Both the Kruger and Mpumalanga authorities have set up sterilised bomas where they will place pregnant buffalo cows in quarantine-like conditions so they can breed a reservoir of TB-free buffalo to repopulate areas where heavy culling might have to occur.