FAO says herding families in the West Bank received more than 3.3 million vaccine doses over two years

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said more than 3.3 million vaccine doses had been delivered over the past two years for livestock belonging to vulnerable herding families in the West Bank, in work with the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture. FAO’s 2 September 2026 release says the doses supported immunisation against peste des petits ruminants, sheep pox, foot-and-mouth disease and brucellosis. The figure counts doses, not animals; one animal may receive more than one dose.

FAO said the earlier two-year supply was funded by Italy, Norway and other resource partners through its Special Fund for Emergency and Resilience Activities. Separately, the ministry recently acquired about 50,000 doses for an emergency campaign against the SAT1 strain of foot-and-mouth disease, with financial support from the Pandemic Fund and technical and procurement assistance from FAO. Those doses should not be treated as a completed vaccination outcome or automatically added as a further round of the 3.3 million doses: the release describes them as a separate recent acquisition.

The announcement points to the effect that animal disease can have on rural household income. In FAO’s 2025 Data in Emergencies survey, agricultural families identified livestock deaths caused by disease as one of the main reasons their households had lost income in recent years. Preliminary findings from FAO’s 2026 survey show reports of animal disease as a major production constraint increased by 20% compared with 2025. This describes a relative change in survey reporting; it does not mean that 20% of households were affected, and it cannot be treated as a prevalence rate without details of the sample and method.

The work described is broader than vaccine delivery. FAO and Palestinian authorities identified brucellosis, foot-and-mouth disease and peste des petits ruminants as three diseases with high pandemic potential. Supported preparedness work includes developing prevention, readiness and response protocols; laboratory and testing equipment; disease-surveillance procedures; biosafety tools for veterinary staff; and systems for information sharing between public and private veterinarians. These components are intended to help detect disease earlier and coordinate an appropriate response.

The financing lines also need to be kept distinct. FAO says the Pandemic Fund provided a US$20 million grant for a wider project to strengthen pandemic prevention and preparedness in the West Bank and Gaza. The project also drew US$25 million in domestic co-investment and US$12 million in international co-financing. The Palestinian Ministry of Health leads it, with FAO, UNICEF, the World Bank and the World Health Organization among the implementing partners. These amounts should not be described as the purchase cost of the 3.3 million doses or as the livestock campaign’s budget alone.

FAO frames the work through a One Health approach that links animal, human and environmental health. That connection explains why veterinary surveillance is relevant beyond livestock production, but the release does not report human cases, animal-to-human transmission, or a measured outbreak prevented. Vaccine supply, diagnostic capacity, field biosafety and data exchange are parts of preparedness; evaluating their impact requires disease and vaccination-coverage data over time.

For producers, preventing disease losses may help protect herds, product income and household resilience. The release does not say how many herds or animals were vaccinated, how doses were distributed geographically, whether disease rates changed, or what monetary losses were avoided. The firm conclusion is therefore limited: the doses delivered over two years represent a large animal-health intervention, while the more recent 50,000 doses support an emergency campaign for a particular strain. Claims about final coverage and results should wait for monitoring data.