Vaccinating animals

In October 1993, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Office for Special Relief Operations deployed 1.5 million doses of live vaccine to Egypt to help control the latest outbreak of Rift Valley fever (RVF). RVF is a highly contagious viral disease that causes high rates of abortion and neonatal mortality in cattle, goats, and sheep, that can also be transmitted to humans, occasionally causing death. After international expert consultants and an FAO expert consultant assessed the extent of the epidemic, they urged Egypt's Veterinary Service to begin an immediate full-scale control programme. Aside from applying the FAO vaccine, measures adopted included restrictions on animal movements, strengthened control of the mosquitoes that carry the disease, and domestic production of the vaccine.