The Government warns that surveillance against avian flu and lumpy skin disease must continue
The Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, warned this Friday that not even the outbreak of bird flu nor the one for lumpy dermatosis in Spain can be considered closed, despite the fact that in both cases the a month without new casesand that it is necessary to continue surveillance.
Both in the case of avian flu, which forced the sacrifice of almost two million poultry, As in the case of lumpy dermatosis in cattle, Spain has had no new cases for a month, but Planas insists that the problem cannot be considered closed “in any way.”
“One has to maintain vigilance. In the case of lumpy dermatosis, since the end of October we have not had any new cases, but we continue with the vaccination processes; in the restriction zone 50 kilometers A vaccination level of 85% has already been reached,” the minister said in statements to Istanbul.
The Government, he stressed, is going to acquire half a million vaccineswhich will be added to the million already available “to have a ‘stock’ enough and to be able to respond” to whatever is needed.
In the case of avian flu, Planas said, the absence of outbreaks on agricultural farms does not allow us to lower our guard, because the virus continues to be recorded in wild birds, “particularly in cranes, but also in other migratory birds”. Just yesterday, a case was detected in a peacock in the province of Alicante, which forced the activation of the surveillance protocol in the area.
