The year 2023 marked an intense year for me. This was the first full year without Corona measures and it seems like the world is spinning faster than ever before. As if we had something to catch up on. Many records were broken, of which the weather records were perhaps the most tangible and visible. Our backyard turned into a swamp at times. We can think anything about it, but the fact is that for the time being we in our Western society have plenty of opportunities to minimize the effects of changing climate conditions, both physically and financially. Capabilities that many people in many African countries have much less or not at all. A drought or flood there can be disastrous among other things because people then sometimes literally lose everything and there is no insurance that pays out.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, in the late summer of 2023, my colleagues and I as veterinarians were faced with a violent outbreak of a (previously yet mainly) tropical animal disease: the Bluetongue virus. In our practice area, this virus caused real carnage, especially among sheep, but many cows did not escape either. As veterinarians, we were powerless. We could not do much more than give painkillers to the animals, end hopeless suffering for animals and give a lot of mental support to animal owners. In some cases, people lost half of their animals. This outbreak made me realize again how vulnerable you can be as a livestock farmer, even in a country like the Netherlands, where we can control a lot of animal diseases well with very good monitoring systems and other measures. This is less the case in many countries in Africa. Although in the Netherlands there is (still) little to no financial compensation available for affected livestock farmers and the mental suffering is high, it will not be the case that people have no food or can no longer send their children to school. This is different in many countries where people have no savings in the bank and depend directly on the production and yields of their livestock and crops and where zoonoses have a much greater impact on people's health. If animals get sick or die there, it will have a direct effect on people's well-being and health. I think this is what motivates all of us to get involved with VFS-Netherlands. Trying from our expertise to do our bit for the better well-being and health of people, animals and the planet.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dierenartsenzondergrenzen.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_20190912_112755-1200x900.jpg\")
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