VN June 2020

Vetnuus | Junie 2020 32 In 1972 when I visited Israel the veterinary scheme covered the whole country. It employed about 78 vets of whom about 60 had a specific area to cover and the remaining 18 acted as locums, remembering that every adult Israeli had to do two months military service every year. Farmers paid an annual fee per animal on their farms, depending on the age and level of production etc. That covered all aspects of health including medication that was needed. The farmer then had the option of a slightly higher fee which would cover insurance on each animal. Each veterinarian would have the responsibility of servicing all the animals in a specific area. Yehuda had about 2500 dairy cattle and a number of sheep under his care. To service these farms he would visit each farm on the average of 3 times a week. Hachakla’ut also had a veterinarian at each of the abattoirs in the country, who collected data on the animals that were slaughtered from the various farms who participated and this information was collated and fed back to the organisation and to the farmers. In addition to this the organisation had tremendous buying power and could go to manufacturers of veterinary products and order formulations to their specification and negotiate prices which made my eyes water. All the veterinary drugs used on the farms were included in the annual fee so it was important for the organisation to keep the costs down. For instance, that was the era when dry-cow therapy first became popular and every cow in Israel was being treated with the same dry cow formula. I later met the chief veterinarian of the organisation, Eli Meyer and spent a couple of days with him. When I came back to SA I was really fired up about the whole idea of herd health practice and especially he unique way in which they had managed to organise it in Israel. While we were in Beersheba we went along the Jordanian valley next to the Dead Sea to visit Masada. This was a great fortress on top of a high mountain looking out over the Dead Sea. On the top are the ruins of a fortress/palace built by Herod which was originally occupied by Jewish Zealots, who were later overcome by the Romans. To reach the top we went up by cable car. My fear of heights was at full bore as we docked at the top. The docking station consisted of a few planks attached by chains to the mountain side, projecting out over space with a drop of about 750 m under it. On the other side of the platform of about 2 meters width was only a low chain where the other cable car would dock on its next run, preventing one from accidently walking off into space when you disembarked. By the time I had stopped shaking I found the fortress most interesting and well worth the visit as we were shown how the Romans had initially conquered the fortress by building an earthen ramp from behind the mountain right up to the summit. Our trip had just started and our next visit was to Eilat, a beautiful holiday resort on the Red Sea, but more of that next time. v Story Imbibing Israel <<< 31 Customised veterinary medicines to effectively address your patient’s requirements Service Centre: 0860 109 779 or pharmacist@v-tech.co.za ISO 9001:2015 Accredited