Spain expands lumpy skin disease vaccination plan to new regions
The European Commission has authorised Spain to expand its emergency vaccination plan against contagious lumpy skin disease to new districts in Catalonia and Aragon to prevent the spread of the disease following the appearance of 18 outbreaks on livestock farms in the province of Girona.
According to Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food, authorisation from the European Union is a prerequisite for administering the vaccine against this disease affecting cattle in areas other than those of the outbreaks declared to date in Girona.
Vaccination programme extended to disease-free zones
The vaccination campaign against lumpy skin disease began on 9 October in Spain and was initially planned only for the restricted zone established in Catalonia following the first outbreaks.
The European Commission has authorised Spain to expand its emergency vaccination program against lumpy skin disease to new districts in Catalonia and Aragon as a reinforcement measure to prevent the spread of the disease following 18 outbreaks on livestock farms in the province of Girona.
However, due to the risk of the disease spreading beyond the restricted area, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, in agreement with the respective autonomous communities, decided to extend vaccination plans to the disease-free zone in some districts bordering the restricted area, both in Catalonia and Aragon. The new vaccination programme includes the peri-vaccination zone, where vaccination is not carried out and there are no restrictions, but surveillance is intensified.
Purchasing vaccines for lumpy skin disease
At the end of October, the Council of Ministers authorised the emergency plan against lumpy skin disease with an initial disbursement of €660,000 for the purchase of vaccines.
To date, Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has acquired more than one million doses of a vaccine, of which it has already received almost 400,000 – the remainder will arrive in 2 shipments before 20 November – and is processing the purchase of another 500,000.
Source: The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food
