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Europa Press
Seville
Tuesday, 1 October 2024, 16:16
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The Junta de Andalucía has purchased 970,000 vaccines for bluetongue serotype 3 in a bid to stop the spread of the disease amongst livestock in the region.
The one-million-euro purchase comes as the regional authority "closely monitors" where cases are cropping up, head of the regional ministry of agriculture Ramón Fernández-Pacheco said.
"As a prevention and precautionary measure, the ministry of agriculture has processed the emergency purchase of these 970,000 vaccines in addition to the 125,000 doses supplied by central government," Fernández-Pacheco said.
The vaccines will be rolled out on Wednesday 2 October to be administered to affected livestock herds. Fernández-Pacheco said the Junta is "in permanent contact" with central government in Madrid for updated information on the cases reported and is in direct contact with those in the livestock sector.
"In Andalucía we have experience with bluetongue, as this summer we had to deal with serotypes 1 and 4 registered in the region, for which we had to buy and distribute vaccines for more than a million euros," Fernández-Pacheco pointed out. However, he is confident the cold weather soon to arrive will also help to prevent the virus from spreading to more parts of the country.
The regional ministry of agriculture is holding a meeting with the livestock sector next Tuesday 8 October. Spain has a national programme for the surveillance, control and eradication of bluetongue, which makes it compulsory to vaccinate animals over three months old.
It is estimated that this initiative has an impact on the welfare of some 2.6 million animals: sheep (2.1 million) and cattle (515,000). The Junta is collaborating with 72 livestock health defence associations in the region for the vaccine rollout.
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