300,000 doses of vaccine are arriving in Sardinia, within the next few days, to address the emergency related to lumpy skin disease in cattle . In addition, the official vaccination plan is already ready pending the Ministry's assessments. These are two of the main new developments that emerged from the information meeting with trade associations, which took place today with the Health Councilor, Armando Bartolazzi, and the Agriculture Councilor, Gianfranco Satta.
The vaccine for Sardinia comes from South Africa. "The Ministry of Health has promptly taken action to obtain the preparation that should arrive on the island within the next 10-15 days", Bartolazzi anticipated. " The official vaccination plan was sent a few hours ago to the Ministry and provides for mandatory blanket vaccination, with priority for the areas affected by the presence of outbreaks . The Veterinary Service of the Region has already pre-alerted the territorial offices of the ASL and the entire organizational machine is now outlined".
A new development, illustrated by Councilor Bartolazzi, is the creation of an operational group to support the Department's activity for the coordination of activities in the field. A real task force that, in close coordination with the Ministry and the European Union, will serve to manage any critical issues and speed up the mass immunization procedures , which it is hoped will be concluded within a month of the vaccine's arrival.
On the issue of combating the emergency, with culling and disposal, Bartolazzi added: «We are exploring all the possibilities allowed by current legislation that allow us to proceed with selective culling, by virtue of the peculiarities of our farms characterized by dispersion and wild grazing. But we cannot decide alone, as this is a national and European emergency. The Ministry, with which we are also talking in these hours, has in any case immediately guaranteed ample coverage for compensation». As for disposal, Bartolazzi explained, two possible delivery points have been identified, in Lazio and Campania .
Councilor Satta then intervened, returning to the subject of compensation: «As far as we are concerned, we have started a dialogue with the Ministry of Agriculture to make resources available in order to block the movement of animals». Satta announced that he had also involved the Agricultural Policies Commission to include the topic of compensation on the agenda in the first session . «Any animals that are slaughtered», he specified, «are the responsibility of the Ministry of Health with compensation defined by the ISMEA tables. At the same time, we will propose a rule in the next budget adjustment (expected for mid-July) to cover the estimated costs for the livestock sector for 90 days of block, equal to 5 million euros».
(Online Union)