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Vaccination for “Aftosa” disease extends to November 23
Posted On 17 Nov 2017
Ecuadornews:
The process of vaccination against “aftosa” foot-and-mouth disease, carried out by Agrocalidad since last September 29, will extend until the 23rd of this month.
The number of vaccinations contemplated was not fulfilled in the foreseen period due to the holidays that were presented during the campaign. Therefore, the institution will continue with the process for two more weeks. The control entity reported that this will meet the objective, which is to vaccinate 4.5 million cattle in the country.
The term does not extend in the provinces of Carchi, Esmeraldas, Imbabura and Sucumbíos because the campaign began earlier in the northern zone due to the outbreak of “aftosa” foot-and-mouth disease in the neighboring country of Colombia.
For this campaign, Agrocalidad imported 4 million vaccines, which were added to the reserve of 1.2 million doses that already counted the country. The cost per dose is $ 0.60.
The entity explained that the current goal is to achieve the declaration of a country free of fever without vaccination. For this, the country had to comply with several requirements demanded by the World Organization for Animal Health. The first was to maintain the status of a country free of foot-and-mouth disease with vaccination through adequate coverage of the bovine and buffalo population, which was achieved in 2015.
Vaccination campaigns were maintained for two more years (2016 and 2017). Agrocalidad will carry out periodic samplings to verify the absence of viral circulation in the bovine population.
The next step is to suspend vaccination in the national territory, conduct monitoring through population sampling for two consecutive years (2018-2019) and demonstrate the non-presence of foot-and-mouth disease virus circulation, in addition to the technical capacity of monitoring and diagnosis on the part of Agrocalidad.
By 2020, the entity aims to collect information with evidence and prepare a dossier in order to submit it to the World Organization for Animal Health for analysis by the Scientific Committee and achieve the certificate. (I)
