Mbale woman jailed over illegal sale of impure animal drugs

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 CRIME 

A woman has been sentenced to three years in jail in Mbale after being found guilty of illegally selling impure veterinary or animal drugs.

Eunice Lutiro, 35, was also fined sh1 million for smuggling animal drugs.

The Magistrate’s Court in Mbale delivered the sentence on Friday (June 13), saying she will serve her time at Maluku Prison in Mbale.

The convict, a resident of Butibwa village in Namisindwa district, had been out on bail.

Grade One Magistrate Morris Oburu delivered the sentence on Friday

Guilty: Eunice Lutiro was sentenced to three years behind bars

She was arrested by the National Drug Authority (NDA) on October 21, 2021 when she was found illegally distributing unauthorized animal drugs in Mbale city, Bugiri district and other places. 

At the time, as many as 14 boxes of assorted classified veterinary drugs were recovered, including dewormers, antibiotics, multivitamins, acaricides and other antiparasitic drugs. 

"Some of these impounded drugs were tested in our pharmaceutical quality control laboratory and were found to have no active ingredients, making them impure(substandard/falsefied/counterfeited) and inactive, which not only makes them a health risk to animal and humans, but also causes economic loss to farmers," said NDA spokesperson Abiaz Rwamiri.

He offered examples.

The multivitamin (Swine Cure) was found to contain only ash powder yet the labels claimed it contained vitamins and mineral supplements. 

Actraz that claimed to having 12.5 percent Amitraz had only 6.5 percent, making it less effective.

Rwamiri (pictured below) said such practices cause drug resistance.

'Farmers hoodwinked'

A government-owned organisation, NDA is mandated to regulate drugs in the country, including their manufacture, importation, distribution, and licensing.

For long, the authority had been probing claims that some farmers preferred veterinary drugs claimed to have been smuggled from the neighbouring countries.

Those farmers had been deceived into believing that those drugs worked better than conventional drugs — yet, according to Rwamiri, "these are being concocted with agrochemicals and other funny things in-country to mimic foreign products as a way of hoodwinking unsuspecting farmers".

He said arresting Lutiro provided confirmation of the intelligence they had been investigating.

Some of the products that have been flagged by NDA include Tick-burn, Paranex, paracide Dudu-acelemecten, Swine Cure and Kilatix.

"These products continue to pose risks to animal production, as exposed animals have high risks of abortion, skin cancers, reduced production, including repeat breeding, and blindness," explained Rwamiri.

"Some residuals of these products find their way into the animal food chain, environment and water sources, which pose human and environmental health threats."

NDA said that some of the products claimed to be smuggled are cold-chain products that must be kept in controlled temperatures. 

"Some of them have unverified sources like the Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine that claimed to be manufactured by the National Veterinary Institute of Ethiopia, but when NDA did a background check, the government of Ethiopia disowned the product," said Rwamiri. 

"Introducing non-endemic pathogens or diseases causing organisms in these fake vaccines poses a risk of introducing foreign strains of disease-causing microorganisms that could be more lethal and virulent."

In the wake of this development, NDA is urging the public to "remain vigilant, buy and use only authorized medical products and report to NDA anyone suspected to be involved in drug related crimes".