(19 Jan 2023)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Badoush, Iraq - 17 January 2023
++WARNING: VIDEO INCLUDES IMAGES OF DEAD WATER BUFFALOES AND CALVES++
1. Various of drone shots of water buffaloes and stables in Badoush, west of Mosul
2. Buffalo infected with foot and mouth disease
3. Infected buffaloes in stable
4. Vaccines and syringes
5. Various of buffalo breeder showing dead calf
6. Breeder comforting buffalo
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Jassim Ali, water buffalo breeder in Badoush:
"Yes, we have seen the disease before, but it wasn’t this bad. It wasn’t like this. Now, the cows started to have excessive (foamy) salvation and their tongue is paralyzed. Their blood streams and canals are clogged. They don’t produce milk anymore. I mean it is horrible. People would want to cry over them. This is our job, it is in our blood. We inherited it from our fathers and grandfathers. Now, look at stables, they are all empty."
8. Various of man milking buffalo cow
9. Infected cow
10. Milk spilled on ground
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hatem Haitha, water buffalo breeder in Badoush:
"We send buffalo milk to most of the governorates including the northern governorates. We used to export 125 to 130 tons of milk per day approximately. Now, all the farms together don’t produce 20 tons due to the disease and the lack of hay, which we can’t afford today. Hay has become expensive now."
12. People standing by dead calf
13. Dead calf on ground
14. Buffaloes standing by drinking pond
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Karam Nashwan, water buffalo breeder in Badoush:
"Well since it started getting cold these days, foot-and-mouth disease started to spread among the herds. All the buffalo breeders and farms in Badoush were affected by it. And every stable has two or three calves or buffaloes dying every day."
16. People pulling dead buffaloes in dump yard
17. Dead buffaloes in the yard
18. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr. Uday al Abadi, director of veterinary hospital in Nineveh:
"We've sent an urgent request to the veterinary department at the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture. We asked them to provide us with an emergency batch of vaccines to vaccinate the animals in these areas where the disease is spreading. Hopefully, this batch will arrive in the coming days."
19. Buffalo breeder
20. Buffalo
21. Herd by the Tigris River in Badoush
STORYLINE:
The highly infectious foot-and-mouth disease that affects livestock has sickened hundreds of water buffaloes in the northern Iraqi town of Badoush, according to breeders and officials.
The area near Mosul is home to hundreds of buffalo breeders who regularly sell milk and other dairy products to buyers in nearby regions.
They say they have never seen an outbreak like this one, adding that the disease has left the animals suffering.
"Now, the cows started to have excessive (foamy) salvation and their tongue is paralyzed," said Jassim Ali, a local breeder.
Foot-and-mouth disease is caused by a virus that infects cattle, sheep, goats, swine and other cloven-hoofed animals.
While death rates are typically low, the disease can make animals ill with fever, decreased appetite, excessive drooling, blisters and other symptoms.
The virus spreads easily through contact and airborne transmission and can quickly infect entire herds.
Milk production on farms in Badoush has taken a hit because of the disease.
"We used to export 125 to 130 tons of milk per day approximately. Now, all the farms together don’t produce 20 tons," said another buffalo herder.
"Hopefully, this batch will arrive in the coming days," he said.
AP video shot by Farid Abdulwahed
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