Cattle vaccination suggested
Arab News National
25 January 1989


Riyadh- A world renowned authority on foot-and-mouth disease of the cattle and sheep has advised farmers in the Kingdom to get their animals, including the young ones, vaccinated as per schedule and prevent the outbreak of the infection in an epidemic form. Described as a killer disease, it has already infected some dairy farms in Al-kharj, while a mass vaccination program is under way in Hail, Qassim and all other milk producing areas in the Kingdom.

The note of caution comes from Dr. Chris G. Schrembrucker, a senior-scientist with Coopers Animal Health Ltd. of Surrey (U.K.), one of the world's major producers of animal vaccines and distributed in the Kingdom by Golden Grass, Inc. of Turki Faisal Al Rasheed. Dr. Schembrucker, who was invited by the Ministry of Agriculture, inspected ten of Kingdom's largest dairy farms, besides meeting scientists from the ministry for a review of the situation.

Calling the disease highly insidious, the scientist said that it causes a sharp drop in the milk yield of the animal, alters its physiology thereby rendering it permanently sterile, and is particularly lethal to calves. "Since a cow will have a higher yield of milk only when it is in calf, you can imagine the havoc, that it plays when it is no longer in calf."

He said the situation is grim in the Al-Kharj area, "When the farmers do not follow the prescribed course of vaccination, all their cattle are bound to be infected. It is important that they use the quadrivalent vaccines to immunize their sheep and cattle against the four types of viruses that are endemic in the Arabian Peninsula."

The outbreak, according to W.A.D. McFadzean, Coopers' operations manager in the Kingdom, spreads first amoung the imported Frisian cattle which are vulnerable to the types of viruses found in this region. Non-compliance with the vaccination program triggered the growth in the viral infection. As for the loss incurred by the dairy farms, he said, it is difficult to estimate. "But five years ago, two farms in Al-Kharj suffered a loss of over SR 10 million. The cattle had to be destroyed, since they had become liability to the dairy farms.

What has made the food-and-mouth disease a serious problem worldwide, according to Dr. Schermbrucker, is the existence of the virus in seven strains or sereotypes. These are the Type O, Type A, Type C, Type Asia 1, Type SAT-1, SAT-2 and SAT-3. "Of the seven sereotypes, the Arabian Peninsular has five of these strains."

He said the problem is compounded by the fact that the disease knows no national or international boundaries. "These are strains of the F & M virus in the African continent which have a tendency to move out of it toward the European and Asian land masses. Since the Arabian Peninsula acts as a bridge connecting the two land masses, they infect the cattle population unless they are properly vaccinated. It prouduces blisters on the tongue, lips, on the udder and teats, between the toes of the feet, and around the coronary band about the hoof. Malignant forms of the disease have led to losses up to 50 percent." He added.