Fort Dodge and Colorado State work together to get 10,000 tetanus vaccines to Ethiopia

Fort Collins, Colo.

-- Colorado State University is working to make a difference a world away, by organizing a donation of 10,000 tetanus vaccines -- enough for about 5,000 working horses and donkeys in Ethiopia.

The vaccines, donated by Fort Dodge Animal Health, arrived in Debre Zeit, Ethiopa, in November through the British charity the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad (SPANA). Dr. Paul Lunn, Colorado State University (CSU) College of Veterinary Medicine's head of the Department of Clinical Sciences organized the donation after learning about the charity through a colleague in the United Kingdom.

"This was a unique opportunity to offer a powerful long-term health benefit to the animals that we care about that would also impact the people that work with them," says Lunn. "Saving a single animal from tetanus potentially saves a whole family from serious hardship and loss."

Though tetanus has been virtually eliminated in the Unites States, developing countries whose farmers have a hard time affording veterinary care still struggle with the disease. Tetanus carries a fatality rate of about 80 percent without proper veterinary care, according to CSU.

SPANA veterinarians will administer the vaccinations, and animal owners will be given education materials on the vaccines and veterinary care.