A high rate of malnutrition caused during the year 2022 the notable increase in mortality in the mass of won cattle and calves in the province of Villa Claraaccording to official media on the island.
During this period, the losses in cattle reached a rate of 5.47%, which represents a total of 22,541 deaths, 2,077 more than in the previous stage, according to data provided to a report of the Cuban News Agency (ACN) by Maikel Madrigal Hernández, main specialist in Epizootiology of the Department of Animal Health (DSA) of the territory.
In the case of calves, the figure rose to 11.71%, with 6,492 in total and 782 above the previous year, adds the information.
The main cause of the growth in mortality lay in the impediments to materializing the feeding programs, due to the lack of fuel and transportation, an aspect that determined that the planting destined for animal feed was not carried out successfully, says the expert.
Malnutrition cases in cattle reached 3,190 heads. There were also high cases of accidents caused by physical weakness (7,537), as well as respiratory and digestive disorders, due to the scarcity of artificial and protein plants.
In the health aspect, since November 2022, they have met the vaccination rates for the different species, together with an antiparasitic treatment for the entire young herd.
Doses against Anthrax -a disease caused by a spore-forming bacterium- were also applied to only 46.7% of the herd, since it was not possible to extend the immunization due to the lack of this drug in the territory, and something similar happened with the Gavac –reactive against the bovine tick– which only reached a net inoculation of 26.3%.
The data collected in Villa Clara are a sample of the situation in the island’s agricultural sector, which has had an unfavorable trend, mainly due to high mortality, theft and illegal slaughter, low birth rates and lack of control of the dough.
Cuba: the figures for theft and slaughter of large cattle soar
According to data exposed in the most recent Plenary of bovine livestock in the country, and handled by the official newspaper Granma10.8% of cattle ownership is concentrated in the state sector and the rest is owned by individual producers, who reach the figure of 142,733 owners scattered throughout the country.
In that same meeting it was revealed that the national bovine mass amounts to 3,645,000 heads, of which 65.6% are females.
The Cuban government has taken some measures to promote the growth of large cattle, including the easing as of August 2021 of the requirements for the slaughter and commercialization of beef by private owners, until then prohibited.
