Vaccinating animals

Innoculating fauna against disease

Description

Vaccinating animals involves the systematic administration of vaccines to domestic, farm, and wild animal populations to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. This essential strategy aims to protect animal health, reduce zoonotic disease transmission to humans, and safeguard food security. By establishing herd immunity, vaccination campaigns control outbreaks, minimize economic losses in agriculture, and contribute to public health by curbing reservoirs of pathogens that threaten both animal and human populations.

Implementation

In October 1993, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Office for Special Relief Operations deployed 1.5 million doses of live vaccine to Egypt to help control the latest outbreak of Rift Valley fever (RVF). RVF is a highly contagious viral disease that causes high rates of abortion and neonatal mortality in cattle, goats, and sheep, that can also be transmitted to humans, occasionally causing death. After international expert consultants and an FAO expert consultant assessed the extent of the epidemic, they urged Egypt's Veterinary Service to begin an immediate full-scale control programme. Aside from applying the FAO vaccine, measures adopted included restrictions on animal movements, strengthened control of the mosquitoes that carry the disease, and domestic production of the vaccine.