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Colombia was declared free of foot-and-mouth disease with vaccination by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) on May 28th 2009. Since 2009 no positive cases of this disease had appeared.
The outbreak was detected on a farm located in the department of Arauca, on a piece of land registered in the ICA’s register. Of the 136 animals (all of them cattle), 7 showed vesicular lesions that gave a positive result to foot-and-mouth disease type “0”.
It must be highlighted that between 2004 and 2009, before the declaration of the country as free of foot-and-mouth disease, five outbreaks appeared in Colombia, and they were eradicated by the ICA in less than 5 months.
The ICA’s Foot-and-Mouth Disease National Programme has established that the vaccination is compulsory, cyclic and massive in all cattle and buffaloes, regardless of their age. The vaccination is carried out in two annual cycles, in the months of May-June and November-December respectively, with a duration of 45 days each.
In 2016, during the two vaccination cycles against foot-and-mouth disease and bovine brucellosis, the number of pieces of land visited and the number of animals vaccinated was higher, reaching coverages of 96.7% and 97.8%, with respect to the census of pieces of land and animals in the country.
The ICA summoned the Colombian farmers to comply with the health measures that the ICA is going to implement for the control of the outbreak and to work together for the notification of the suspicions of animals with symptoms that are compatible with the disease.
Saturday, 24 June 2017/ ICA/ Colombia.
http://www.ica.gov.co
