Global Courant 2023-05-30 12:06:59
More than 100 cattle have died from bovine rabies infection in callwhich has alarmed the ranchers and they fear an outbreak in humans.
Over the weekend, the farmers and municipal health authorities of Ilama received the results of the examination carried out on the sick cattle and confirmed that it was bovine rabies.
After the ranchers of the area detected the first carcasses, they contacted the regional office in San Pedro Sula of the Food Health and Safety Service (Senasa), displacing a group of technicians who extracted samples from a slaughtered cow, testing positive for bovine rabies.
To know
The symptoms of rabies in cattle are: paralysis and incoordination, difficulty walking, salivation. It affects the central nervous system.
This disease is caused by a virus that attacks the central nervous system of warm-blooded animals, it is a zoonosis (animals can make humans sick and vice versa). It causes changes in behavior, locomotion and sensitivity, according to international studies.
The Ilama Municipal Corporation issued a statement through Municipal Justice Department in which it prohibits the butchering and marketing of the meat of said animals, in order to safeguard the health and life of the population.
Ilama Cattlemen’s Association
Augustin Munoz:
“We are concerned about the economic losses and that there could be an outbreak in humans.”
THE PRESS toured the Santa Barbara Municipal Market which is where the meat is sold and the butcher shop owners said they are not buying beef from slaughterhouses. call and that the products they sell go through strict safety and health measures.
The engineer Jorge Paztechnician of the Municipal Environmental Unitsaid that for two months there have been reports of cattle deaths in chemistanlater in Trinidad “and two weeks ago in Ilama with the death of the first cattle in the village of El Pital,” he reported.
Cases of bovine rabies they have been detected in the communities of El Pital, San Juan, the urban area of the municipality, La Estancia, La Cañada, Cececagua, Uncana Umigua, La Cuchilla and El Zorzal.
As a way to stop the outbreak in animals and prevent it from reaching humans, since no cases had been detected in people until yesterday, it was determined that the owners of the cattle should vaccinate them against rabies, since the Health Secretary does not provide it.
Municipal Director of Justice
Pedro Pablo Hernandez:
“We prohibit the butchering and marketing of beef in the municipality.”
gabriel paredeshead of the Departmental Region of Health of Santa Bárbara, reported that the cases have been handled in accordance with the protocol and that people who were in contact with the cattle will be vaccinated against rabies. He added that the consumption of meat from these cattle is at risk, “the issue is that there are cattle that are destined for meat and there are few municipal traces throughout the department and they do clandestine butchering.”
He said that the detection of rabies cases in cattle occurred late in call because people hid it, but they have had deaths of these animals in other municipalities, but in fewer numbers. The dead cattle are cremated or buried in deep pits prior to spraying them with lime.
Worry
Agustín Muñoz, a member of the Ilama Cattlemen’s Association, stated that “we are alarmed and concerned because the positivity has already been confirmed through the tests that were taken to the laboratory of Senasa. The sample was taken from live animals that were later sacrificed.
He added that this harms the economy of the municipality since in these two weeks the losses oscillate in more than three million lempiras. Muñoz assured that the meat of the animals that died was not marketed.
The Santa Barbara Health Region will begin vaccinating people who had contact with infected animals.
