Several students of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Sarajevo fell ill due to an infection with Q fever. Samples are being checked and analyzed to determine where the infection occurred, and Q fever was found on one of the farms where the students had their practice.
It is suspected that the Butmir Agricultural Estate is the place where the students were infected, considering that practice was done on this farm and considering the positive findings of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, after which practical classes were suspended here as a precaution.
The Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Muhamed Smajlovic, said two days ago that a connection between the Bojnik farm in Butmir and the infected students had not yet been established, but that due to the positive cases, preventive measures were taken and the practice was suspended.
While the public writes about ”apples”, the Bojnik farm denies”oranges”
The day before yesterday, a denial came out from the Bojnik farm in which they deny the existence of Q fever in cattle, attaching as evidence the negative result of the analysis done in November of last year, ignoring that after that the analysis of samples from the Bojnik farm was also done, which showed the opposite.
They also claim that they will sue the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine for going public with information about the existence of Q fever at the Bojnik farm, despite the fact that they are not certified to perform such analyses.
Moreover, they also emphasized that none of the employees of the Butmir Agricultural Estate had symptoms of Q fever, which is why they doubt that the students got infected right here. They point out that the farm implements all the measures prescribed by law, but the students claim that the problems at this farm have been turning heads for years and that the animals live in inhumane conditions.
In addition, Dean Smajlovic made a statement about Q fever to three media outlets two days ago, and his statement is different in each one. In one statement, one calf is infected, in another, it is about a girl, and in the third, he claims that there is no infection. That says a lot about the dexterity of managing a crisis situation.
Five cases of infection have been confirmed so far, and there are still students who are not feeling well. In addition to veterinary students, there were also students of the Faculty of Agriculture on this farm, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
