CAMAGUEY.- The recombinant vaccine against ticks Gavac , produced in the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), of this city, continues its application in the Cuban cattle mass, in the determination to resist the harmful effects that this arachnid causes.

Although in 2015 a total of 322 054 bovine specimens were under this program, one year later it increased to 486 780, according to information provided by the Department of Promotion of this productive scientific institution.

As for administrated doses, the increase was significant; it was not very distant from duplicating the 717 620 with which they closed in 2015.

The results, far from being the ideal ones, turn out to be accompanied by a promotional work and by a plan of training to different instances, with the participation of peasants and members of a cooperative, productive units and the support of the Agriculture and the National Association of Small Farmers.

It is very pleasant to know that in the first trimester of the current year 644 775 doses have been commercialized, a number superior to the difference of administered between 2015 and 2016.

In December, 2015 the national commercialization was going through hard times but this is staying behind, due to the organizational measures and to a major amount of responsibility of the entities entrusted to protect the animal health.

The vaccine Gavac is part also of the exportable funds of Camagüey´s CIGB towards five countries of the region.

In the 2016 report of Cuba on damages of the economic, commercial and financial blockade, it is mentioned that in the State of Tamaulipas, Mexico frontier with the territory of the United States where these mites are endemic, a study was carried out and it was demonstrated that the efficacy of this vaccine was 99 per cent.

Moreover, in the year 2012, GAVAC was evaluated by the USDA ARS Center for Tick Research Laboratory, and the efficacy result for the ticks control was 99,9 per cent.

The ticks from approximately 20-30 per bovine specimen affect negatively in the mass, with decreases in the weight gain of the specimens, in the dairy yields, in the fertility and the possibility of contracting other illnesses to the detriment of the economy.