After floods, animals also under stress, which reduces their productivity

Tarik Bajrović, professor at the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Sarajevo, believes that by removing dead animals from flooded areas in BiH, the problem with animals is not fully resolved, because equal attention must be paid to surviving animals.

World standards do not recommend that animals in a slaughterhouse watch the slaughter of other animals, so one can only imagine the stress experienced by animals, especially in Posavina, which witnessed the flooding and drowning of other animals.

When under stress, they are more susceptible to diseases, and certainly less productive, which can further increase losses in this branch of the BiH economy, which suffered millions in damage during May due to the devastating natural disaster.

- The immunity of animals that survived the disaster is now weakened, they are under stress, and they must be handled very carefully until they recover – warns Bajrović.

However, regardless of all the dangers that may now appear among surviving animals, the respected expert believes that solid immunity cannot be expected from the vaccines that the authorities plan to administer to surviving animals, so he recommends that such animals be given antibiotics initially.

- The temperature of the animals should be monitored, and if it rises by one degree, the animals should be given antibiotics. Not only because of anthrax, this can also help with other infections – believes Professor Bajrović. He reminds those who will administer antibiotics to animals to respect the withdrawal period of the therapy, i.e., not to consume milk or meat from those animals during its duration.

Professor Bajrović also recommends that the facilities where animals stay be cleaned with hot or cold water along with "resting the facility" (temporal disinfection), reduce animal reproduction with treatments against internal parasites, and in the fight against insects, avoid chemical agents, instead using nets on windows or whitewashing the room.