Dr. Muhammad Afzal of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) holds up a bottle of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine
to show what happens when the cold chain is broken. The vaccine
is spoiled, cloudy with precipitates and no longer effective.
Fortunately, this was a test bottle and 500,000 additional doses
of vaccine are safely stored in a modern cold room provided by
USDA as part of its Program for the Progressive Control of FMD
in Pakistan. Millions of people in Pakistan rely on animals to
provide much needed food and income. Unfortunately, most of the
approximately 119 million livestock in Pakistan receive little
or no routine veterinary care and disease outbreaks are a common
problem. FMD affects millions of cattle, water buffalo, and yaks
in Pakistan each year. The disease decreases milk production,
causes stillbirths, and can cause the death of valuable
livestock, particularly in calves. The USDA Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service (APHIS) International Services (IS)
advisors stationed