Vet office to revaccinate Leon livestock
The Iloilo Provincial Veterinary Office will revaccinate cattle and carabao in Leon, Iloilo against hemorrhagic septicemia this week following a report of a disease outbreak in the municipality, the Department of Agriculture said in a press release.
Dr. Silvino Teodosio, Iloilo provincial veterinarian, said they are set to revaccinate all livestock in Leon once the vaccines and other needed supplies arrive.
Leon is known as the livestock capital of Iloilo.
Teodosio said their office already gave out vitamins to livestock farmers to strengthen the resistance of carabaos and cows against pasteurella multocida bacteria that usually attacks during wet season.
The bacteria stays on the throat of the large ruminants during dry season and becomes active only during wet season when the animals’ resistance usually decrease because of humid climate and heavy work in the fields.
The hemosep outbreak in Leon already killed 14 large ruminants, including nine
carabaos and five cows.
One case investigated last Friday confirmed the par acute strain of the bacteria on a carabao that was still grazing at around 8 a.m. but suddenly collapsed at 11 a.m. and eventually died at noon that day.
The disease is characterized by a sudden onset of high fever, dyspnea, salivation, hot painful subcutaneous swellings, and submucosal petechiae and death in about 24 hours.
Teodosio said it is impossible to administer medication with this par acute incident because of attacks the animal very fast. But he encouraged farmers to report all incidents to proper authorities.
He told farmers not to slaughter the sick animals to avoid the spread of disease to other areas. Although the disease is not contagious to human, slaughtering of infected animals poses high risk of spreading the disease.
