Louis Pasteur said that "Medicine heals man and Veterinary Medicine heals humanity.”
Las Tunas, Cuba.- That certainty accompanies the steps of Cándido Isael Pérez González, who with only three years of practice in the profession knows himself safe in the election made almost a decade ago.
"I always wanted to study Veterinary Medicine," this young man says, who studied in the neighboring province of Granma, and now works at the Osmani Guerrero pig breeding center, in the municipality of Jesús Menéndez.
"I like the profession and the work in this unit. We are like family because we are here most of the time," he says as feeding the offspring in one of the ships, specifically in the one destined for the maternity.
The daily maelstrom is a kind of ABC that Candido masters and explains with ease and without brakes: "In the mornings, the animals are counted during the delivery of the night shift. We do the analysis of the mortality of the previous day, check the food to verify that the workers have supplied the agreed amount; then the clinic and treatment that is when we give, for example, dextran, an injection that supplies the piggy with the necessary iron. We repeat this prophylaxis in the afternoon and, also, we recheck the food.
"Then, the closing of the day will come, with the head of the area, and the updating of the controls, after which we make the delivery to the night shift."
In pigs, each space is part of a closed cycle. As a chain, the reproduction is directly related to the final objective, the delivery of pre-fattening to the producers. Results and, consequently, the salary of the 85 workers depend on the effort and sense of belonging.
Right in the maternity area, the young veterinarian brings other details to 26: "This same ship is that of the York breed, which will replace the current reproducers. From their birth, therefore, they receive a differentiated treatment. Sometime after their birth, instead of going to pre-fattening, females are sent to the reproduction area and, there, the cycle to a young female begins; and latter, from young female to a reproducer.
"The pens are daily sanitized, although with little water, as the farrowing takes place in dry," he explains. Achieving low mortality and a good weight at the time of weaning, at 26 days, is one of the efforts of the small group that works on this task, side by side.
The effort is similar in each area, and it is that the "Osmani Guerrero" collective does not stop with regrets, but seeks solutions. Given the lack of some medicines, for example, they go to the "saving" Natural and Traditional Medicine.
"The most important thing is to look for alternatives", a worker with years of experience will say; while young people like Cándido Isael Pérez González are constantly searching to make their profession a better work every day, protecting not only animals but also, fortunately, humanity.
