More than a month after the discovery of first homes in the Alps and the slaughter of certain herds, the vaccination campaign finally started, in Savoy in particular.
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The Ministry of Agriculture announced on Monday July 21, new methods to accompany the herd breeders affected by contagious nodular dermatosis. This unprecedented disease, a sort of smallpox which contaminates cows but is not transmitted to humans puts dairy farmers in difficulty and worries the health authorities. Friday, July 18, more than a month after the discovery of the first households in the Alps and the slaughter of several herds, vaccination was finally when 27 contagious households had been identified in Savoy and Haute-Savoie.
In the dairy farm of Verel-de-Montbel, in Savoie, time is running out to administer the doses, so as not to contaminate the 150 stone cows, the breeder of this property. It is“An immense relief to see the vaccine arrive on our farms”he confides with emotion when he saw the veterinarian’s car park.
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Thomas, the veterinarian, standing since 6 am, comes on the sixth exploitation of the day. Barely time to swallow coffee and he gets to work. “To see them with tears in your eyes when you get on the farm is something. And then it’s the race because we know that there is a strong expectation opposite. It is the first time that I vaccine cows on Sunday”explains Thomas.
The 300,000 doses of vaccines imported from South Africa in an emergency, are kept preciously in the fridge, in a cooler. “We pay very attention to the cold chain, because since we don’t have many vaccines, we treat them with great attention”Indicates the veterinarian who takes a helping hand from the breeder to save time. “You have the solvent bottle, after you take it and you re-inject it”, ghe uide.
“There is a certain emotion to do that”
Thomas, veterinarianin franceinfo
The bottles are placed in an automatic syringe resembling a small pistol. The bites are linked at the rate of a hundred in half an hour. Stress has not yet completely disappeared on the breeder’s face yet. “Knowing that total immunity is there after 21 days, we will have won within 21 days”, He hopes. The veterinarian must leave, but he will go back to vaccinate the last stone cows that graze in the fields, on the mountain sides, more difficult to access, but also more distant from the disease.
