A change at the top of the Food and Veterinary Agency on the day the sheep vaccines arrived: SPM thanks Milanov for representing the party

November 3, evening. 400,000 doses of vaccine against sheep and goat pox arrived at Skopje airport via Turkey - a donation from the European Union, Macedonia's Food and Veterinary Agency (AHV) announced. A few hours later came the second piece of news: AHV director Oliver Milanov had resigned.

The pox epidemic is already decimating the country's livestock. More than 10,000 animals have been culled to contain the disease in the worst-hit eastern areas, and many of them were healthy animals put down as a precaution. AHV is now announcing emergency vaccination across the whole country, under an Emergency Vaccination Plan approved by the EU. "Animal health and the protection of livestock remain our top priority," the agency says.

The change at the top was confirmed publicly by - a party. The Socialist Party of Macedonia thanked Milanov on social media for leading the agency and stressed that over the past period he had represented the SPM with dignity at the head of the institution. Leaving no doubt about where he's headed, it added: "His dedicated work and selfless engagement, highly valued in the SPM and by the public, are his personal pledge for the future performance of responsible and high duties."

The new director is Jovica Andovski, for many years a deputy health minister. The party welcomed him with a sentence worth reading twice: "With his responsibility, seriousness and dedication to the Socialist Party of Macedonia, Jovica Andovski is an example of a devoted and honest party member."

So here is an agency that is supposed to safeguard animal health and food safety, and the party talks about it as if it were its own branch office. The statements don't say a word about why Milanov is leaving right now, in the middle of an epidemic, or what the new director plans for the vaccination campaign that is only just starting.

Livestock farmers who watched their herds being destroyed aren't asking who is a devoted party member. They're asking whether the vaccine will reach their barns in time, and who answers for the thousands of animals culled. Who will answer them - Milanov, Andovski, or the party that sends them?