Foot-and-Mouth Disease Spreads in Zimbabwe

The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease has spread to five properties in Masvingo, Matabeleland North and South provinces of Zimbabwe, bringing to six the number of feedlots infected by the disease over the past five days, the Herald newspaper reported Thursday.

A task force, including Director of Veterinary Services Stuart Hargreaves and a senior official from the Veterinary Services Council, has been set up to monitor the situation and control the spreading of the disease, the report said..

The outbreak has been described as a national crisis that require concerted efforts to control it.

Hargreaves Wednesday said that veterinary officials have so far inspected 100 properties involving 100,000 cattle in the three provinces and are optimistic about containing the disease.

"To date, five further properties have been positively identified on clinical signs and quarantined. All cattle movements have been suspended until further notice except for those going directly to slaughter at registered abattoirs for local consumption," he said.

Dairy products have also been suspended until further notice, Hargreaves added.

7,000 cattle destroyed

At least 7,000 cattle at the Cold Storage Company (CSC) feedlots in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, will be destroyed after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, the official newspaper reported Wednesday.

In an interview with the newspaper on Tuesday, a senior quarantine officer in the Department of Veterinary Services confirmed that about 7,000 cattle would be slaughtered as the fight against the outbreak of the disease intensifies.

The European Union, the Southern African Development Community and the World Organization for Animal Health have been informed about the outbreak.

Zimbabwean Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Joseph Made said on Tuesday that the foot and mouth disease outbreak would be contained but called for all farmers' cooperation.

He told Zimbabwe TV last night that vaccines had been airlifted from Namibia as back up.

The outbreak was detected at the CSC firm's Willsgrove Feedlot, about 15 kilometers from Bulawayo, off Harare Road.

The CSC, Zimbabwe's sole beef exporting agency, has an annual export quota of 9,100 tons to the EU and 5,000 tons to South Africa.

The government on Monday immediately suspended all beef exports to the EU and other markets as a precautionary measure.

Vaccines imported

Zimbabwe has imported from Botswana a total of 100,000 doses of vaccines against foot-and- mouth disease which broke out last week in a southwestern city, a veterinary official said on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe's Veterinary Services Director Stuart Hargreaves told reporters that the country had managed to procure the vaccines despite the crippling shortage of foreign currency.

He said measures were being taken to procure financial assistance for the purchase of more vaccines to add to the current stocks and to cover running costs for extra vehicles to assist in the rapid inspection and identification of infected properties.

Hargreaves stressed there was need for cooperation from everyone to fight the disease which was threatening the viability of the multi-billion dollar cattle industry but is still confined to Bulawayo, the country's second largest city.

"This is a national issue," the director said, adding: "There is need for cooperation like we have done in the past."

He noted that South Africa and the World Organization for Animal Health had expressed the willingness to offer support.

"At the moment we are able to cope but if the need arose we should request for international support," Hargreaves said.

About 100 properties and 100,000 cattle have been detected for the disease and the exercise will be extended to cover other 4 million cattle in susceptible areas.

All exports of beef, pork and dairy products have been suspended until further notice to protect the livestock industries of the importing countries.

However, Hargreaves said exports of ostrich to the European Union would continue as the birds were disease free.








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