PP12 Vet Team Joins Cambodian Vets, Vaccinate Local Animals

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Michael Feddersen, Navy Public Affairs Support Element West

SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (NNS) -- Pacific Partnership 2012 veterinarians worked side by side with Cambodian veterinarians to provide vaccinations for local animals during a veterinarian civic action project (VETCAP) in Sihanoukville, Cambodia Aug. 9.

Vaccinations included rabies vaccinations, wormers and a vaccination against a local disease for small animals as well as cattle and carabao.

World Vets volunteer Eilidh Hawkins said the VETCAP helped educate the local veterinarians about vaccinating and help reduce the risk of rabies in the area.

"The work we are doing here for rabies prevention is important to protect children from rabies, so we are working with the vets on the diseases they need to treat their animals for," said Hawkins.

Army Spc. Amanda Schwartz said another important part of the VETCAP was to provide vitamin B to the cattle and carabao.

"We give them vitamin B to help them gain weight," she said. "A lot of times, they aren't getting the vitamins they need, so we help supplement them."

Hawkins said the idea was to focus on preventative medicine.

"A lot of the work we do here is about preventative medicine and preventing disease, rabies in particular," she said. "So we do rabies education with children and use our vaccination program. Our work here has been a success due to the help we have received from the Cambodian officials and the Cambodian vets as well as our own team made up of U.S. Army veterinarians, NGOs, host and partner nations."

During PP12, VETCAPs are held to provide free care to local pets and livestock to protect the spread of disease to both animals and people.

Now in its seventh year, Pacific Partnership is an annual U.S. Pacific Fleet humanitarian and civic assistance mission U.S. military, host and partner nations, non-governmental organizations and international agencies designed to build stronger relationships and disaster response capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region.