Tunisia
SPANA has been working in Tunisia since 1925 and our three veterinary centres and three mobile clinics treat around 12,000 working animals each year, including many camels.
For many years Tunisia's camels were used to transport goods and people across the desert. Today, most of them work in the tourist trade giving rides to holidaymakers.
The SPANA team in Kebili make weekly visits to camel stations, in and around Douz, to treat sick camels and show their owners how best to prevent illness and injury. There are hundreds of camels in this area but SPANA manages to see every single one each month.
Of course we also treat numerous donkeys, horses and mules around the country.
This video shows our staff treating animals in one of the rural areas of Tunisia:
Tunisia’s “Magic Bus”
SPANA’s education bus regularly tours the country visiting places like Jendouba, Bou Salem, Oued Mliz and Gardimaou. The message it spreads across the country is simple: “Animals are amazing creatures, treat them with care and compassion.”
The bus features exhibitions, games and film material and is visited by around 14,000 children every year.
Farriery Courses
We also run farriery courses where we train local farriers in more humane ways of shoeing and trimming. This prevents horses and donkeys from developing painful hoof deformities, which in turn can cause lameness and joint problems.
Our work
In the northwest, there are large cork-oak forests, and mules are used to thread their way through the trees to retrieve the huge slabs of cork. SPANA has a centre in Bou Salem from where mobile clinics travel up into the hills, often in savage weather during winter months, to treat the equines of the region. In 2008 SPANA treated 6490 mules in Tunisia; the most common issues we dealt with were musculoskeletal and respiratory.
Our team work in tough conditions at the edge of the great desert, they travel thousands of miles every year and last year treated nearly 6000 horses and over 9,000 donkeys. In most cases SPANA is the only available veterinary service.
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