Wildebeest migration across the Mara River from the Serengeti National Park-Tanzania to Maasai Mara National Reserve-Kenya and back is a spectacular phenomenon that attracts millions of tourists every year.
During the season, millions of wildebeests and zebra journey from Serengeti starting in July and return towards the end of the year.
Experts say their movement is mainly because of breeding purposes as they come to the Kenyan side for mating and return to Tanzania to calve.
Narok Governor Patrick Ntutu recently revealed that approximately Sh3 million wildebeest crossed from the Serengeti to Mara this year, a number he considered higher than the previous years.
He said the Mara is the main source of local revenue for the county government as it generates up to Sh3.5 billion annually, owing to the increased number of tourists that visit the resource.
He said despite the huge amount of revenue that the phenomenon attracts, cattle farmers around the Maasai Mara National Reserve ecosystem are not a happy lot.
The farmers said a viral disease has been released in the environment where the wildebeest calves and when their cattle feed on the grass at the place of calving, they become weak to the point of death.
Abraham Tobiko, a livestock farmer at Emati area in Trans Mara West Subcounty said not all wildebeest return to the Tanzanian side to calve.
“Some wildebeests are left behind in Kenya where they calve. If our cattle happen to feed on the grass where a wildebeest has calved, it becomes sickly to the point of death,” he said.
He said he had lost his cow which is believed to have eaten grass where the wildebeest had calved, hence contracted a virus and died after a few days.
“When we find pregnant wildebeests in our premises, we chase them away so that they don’t calve near our homesteads,” he reiterated.
Narok West Veterinary Officer Dr Mattew Nchoko confirmed the viral disease as Malignant Catarrhal Fever (MCF), which leads to death in cattle.
He said the disease causes depression, diarrhoea, loss of appetite, high fever, nasal discharges and leads to death in cattle.
Dr Nchoko said approximately 3-12 per cent of the number of cattle that have come in contact with the wildebeest calving area have died of the disease.
He advised farmers to be careful not to graze their livestock at such points to avoid losing their animals as the disease has no known cure.
Assistant Director Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) in charge of Narok Ecosystem Ibrahim Osman said wildebeest mostly feed in the protected areas.
He advised farmers to protect their cattle from moving to the wildlife-protected areas without someone to escort them.
“Before, the wildebeest used to loiter in a very wide range, but because of human settlement, they are constrained in the national reserve and conservancies, which is their natural habitat,” he said.
Osman reiterated that the pastoralist community has lived with wild animals for years and has never complained of the disease.
“I have heard of the disease but I am not sure if it is scientifically proven. However, I advise farmers to keep off the wildlife-protected areas, where the wildebeest are found and mostly breed,” he said.