Tehran - Iran has successfully contained a new strain of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) after vaccinating 8.8 million head of cattle within three months, the head of the Iran Veterinary Organization announced.

 

Mohammad Reza Rafiepour said that 10.6 million vaccine doses covering all FMD strains were administered nationwide in the first nine months of the year, with nearly 8.8 million doses targeting the new strain. Vaccination coverage in industrial livestock units has reached 100 percent.

 

He added that the second phase of vaccination is now underway and will primarily use domestically produced vaccines, with imported vaccines available upon request. In this phase, around 5.5 million cattle and 65 to 70 million sheep and goats will be vaccinated nationwide, most of them free of charge.

 

The provinces most affected by the new strain included Tehran, East and West Azarbaijan, Isfahan, Ardabil, Fars, and Qom.

 

Rafiepour also highlighted plans to use artificial intelligence in livestock disease prevention and said a regional biosafety level-3 veterinary laboratory in Khorasan Razavi, now 90 percent complete, requires additional funding to become operational.