Gavac Campaign Demands the Incorporation of More Cattle

Sunday, 29 September 2019 06:40

Gavac Campaign Demands the Incorporation of More Cattle

Written by Luz Marina Reyes Caballero

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Gavac Campaign Demands the Incorporation of More Cattle

The vaccine against the tick of cattle, which is named Gavac, is capable of triggering an effective response against this mite that causes anemia and hinders animal growth. It is manufactured in Cuba by researchers from the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. The state agriculture companies and some private producers also apply it in the country.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- This vaccine is marketed by Labiofam. Its prime objective is the Rhipicephalus microplus, a kind of tick. The veterinarians inject it into the bovine in a deep intramuscular way. It allows the antigen that it contains to be processed by the animal's immune system. Thus, it promotes the immunization of cattle, mediated by antibodies, those that pass to the tick when it is fixed to the beef and feeds on its blood. In this way, Gavac causes irreversible lesions in the intestinal wall of the parasite.

Dr. José Rafael Martínez Castillo, coordinator of the Bovine Tick Integrated Control Program, belonging to the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology of Havana, states that "the immunogenic, after being attached to the parasite, makes it fall into the grass. Consequently, it will lay fewer eggs and in turn, the larvae coming from them have less viability. As generations of the plague pass, over and over again on immunized animals, the damages, with cumulative effect, reduce their populations in the pastures.

"Therefore, it is necessary that the producers are inserted in the vaccination campaign of the Ministry of Agriculture because although the drug does not completely eliminate the tick, it does progressively diminish its populations. In addition, the baths with chemicals will continue and this considerably increases the time between one and the other: it was before from 7 to 21 days, and now it is from 115 to 1,095."

In the province, there are some human resources problems that make difficult the incorporation of cattle then the percentages are low, but "we are working on each of the basic links so that Las Tunas is again among the first provinces in Cuba that applies the Gavac to the cattle ", commented the coordinator of the Program.

It is necessary to fight ticks because only one is capable of sucking three milliliters of blood, and if we multiply that amount by many more and in several cattle, the number increases and meat and milk production is considerably affected, the expert concluded.