Perils in the fields

Farmers depend on their animals for food and labor; now they learn some may be infected with dreaded brucellosis

By Fran Hesser
Special to CNN Interactive

Fran Hesser, a free-lance journalist from Montana, is in Kosovo to serve alongside her husband, a physician assistant, in the International Medical Corps, a volunteer relief agency. Watch for her dispatches on this site.

An Albanian man and his son use milk cows to pull a wagon as they gather firewood near Busovata

GNJILANE, Kosovo (CNN) -- In the struggle for daily survival in this province's rural economy, animals are vital members of the work force.

The same animals may labor for years pulling plows and wagons. We see them working in the summer heat alongside their masters in fields of corn, wheat and grass. When their working days are over they often end up as meat on the supper table.

Some of those animals now may be harboring a disease that can be easily passed to humans through meat and dairy products. In the southeastern part of Kosovo, where we are posted, 14 cases of brucellosis have been confirmed this spring and summer.

Brucellosis is a disease of cattle, sheep, hogs and goats that causes severe health problems in humans, including long-term disability and, occasionally, death. Many other cases are suspected but have not yet been confirmed.

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One of the victims is a meat cutter in Gnjilane. Doctors suspect he caught the disease by handling tainted meat. "Mishtores," or meat stores, display bloody carcasses of sheep, goats and cows in the windows. I am not squeamish, but I have to avert my eyes when I walk by.

The threat of disease makes us wary of eating any meat or unpasteurized dairy products. We are especially worried about the delicious soft cheeses sold in the Saturday farmers' market and served to us in rural villages. The cheeses are made from raw milk that can carry the disease.

Veterinary care rare

Brood animals in most advanced nations are routinely given brucellosis vaccinations before they reach breeding age. Brucellosis in animals is a venereal disease that causes spontaneous abortions. In Kosovo, however, and in most developing nations, veterinary care for animals is rare.

Farmers depend on their animals for milk and for offspring that are raised for meat. An unproductive animal is usually sold. A cow that has had one or two aborted calves typically goes to the butcher. If the cow aborted because of brucellosis, the meat could transfer the disease to everyone who eats it.

Most people have small herds. I often see people tending only one or two cows. Since that is their whole day's work, that cow's production is valuable.

A Serb woman tends her milk cows in Pones. Some Kosovars have only one or two cows and depend heavily on the animals for their livelihoods.

Few farmers can afford to keep their own bulls for breeding. So neighbors often share a bull or rent the services of one. If that bull becomes infected with brucellosis, it can spread the disease to every cow it encounters.

In Montana, where we live, ranchers run huge herds of cattle. To avoid the spread of brucellosis most ranchers use only fresh bulls for breeding, ones that have never been used with other herds.

Cows that are not ear-tagged and tattooed by a veterinarian as proof of having the brucellosis vaccine when they were calves cannot be sold out of state for breeding. Few ranchers would buy them even in the state without such proof.

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