Kampong Thom agriculture department Officials vaccinate cattle against lumpy skin disease on September 11. TAN PHANNHA
The lumpy skin disease (LSD) vaccination working group has vaccinated over 10,000 cattle throughout the country, while Tan Phannara, director-general of the animal health and production directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said the disease in Cambodia is currently manageable.
On August 28, the ministry launched an LSD vaccination campaign for the capital and provinces to stop lumpy skin disease from spreading further after it entered Cambodia through neighbouring countries and began causing cattle here to become sick and in some cases die.
Phannara told The Post on September 12 that as of now 10,000 doses had been used out of the 20,000 doses of the vaccines ordered from Vietnam and distributed to the capital and provinces.
“We’ve observed that we are gradually managing the epidemic situation, including the efforts at the provincial levels trying to provide treatment to farmers’ cattle,” he said.
According to Phannara, through field inspections in the affected provinces the ministry would change strategies to provide vaccinations against LSD to calves and buffaloes as they’d found that the higher percentage of disease leading to death was in calves and buffaloes.
He also said that the ministry would strive to find more vaccines in order to be able to provide them for the cattle of all Cambodians.
“The vaccines from South Africa are under negotiations for purchase and they have not yet arrived but I think they will be here next week because our bank and the vaccine manufacturer’s bank are in constant communication. This order is taking a bit longer to get done because it’s a new order from this country,” he said.
Theng Savoeun, president and co-founder of the Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community, praised the agriculture ministry for providing vaccinations for cattle nationwide.
Savoeun added that focusing on providing vaccines to the calves and buffaloes of the locals will ensure the stability and growth of the cattle.
“The ministry’s vaccination management strategy seems to be working well because so far we have not had any [complaints]. If everyone’s cattle are vaccinated, that’s a good situation for the people and the key to success will be transparency in the provision,” he said.
