Drone delivery of animal vaccines takes wings
The Hindu
Maiden flight involved supply of around 1,000 doses of Indian Immunologicals’s FMD vaccine Raksha Ovac in Arunachal Pradesh
Drone delivery of animal vaccines, which is expected to help improve access to remote areas, took wings with a consignment of Indian Immunologicals’s Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine Raksha Ovac in Arunachal Pradesh.
The Central government’s department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, the State’s department of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry along with Indian Immunologicals and the drone service provider came together for the maiden drone flight from Roing to Paglam in Arunachal Pradesh. “IIL is proud to be part of the history of transporting animal vaccines through use of drones for the first time in the world,” the vaccine maker said.
Drone delivery of vaccines is expected to not only reach remote difficult terrains faster but also help in providing critical vaccines on time for the protection of livestock from several diseases, the company said in a release on Monday. The maiden flight covered an aerial distance of more than 20 km, it said.
“With this, IIL has amply demonstrated the delivery of ‘medicines from the sky’, IIL managing director K. Anand Kumar said.