OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday
SOUTH African veterinary officials are extending a quarantine zone in KwaZulu-Natal in a desperate bid to fight the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease which is threatening the country’s entire meat export industry.
The move follows the discovery last week that the disease, which first hit a commercial herd in mid-September, had spread to a free-roaming herd owned by tribal farmers in the Georgedale area of the province, near Pietermaritzburg.
The foot-and-mouth disease control centre has extended its quarantine area north and south of Georgedale to include more tribal farmlands.
Five cattle in a herd of 34 cattle tested positive last week in Georgedale, putting more than 5000 animals at risk.
An official at the disease control centre said those animals would be culled, while veterinary teams continued inspecting communal herds of cattle in the quarantine area north and south of Georgedale.
A 10km quarantine area within a 30km surveillance zone was set up around the original affected farms in September.
Last week troops were deployed to ensure there was no movement of dead or live cattle into or out of the quarantine area.
More than 3600 cattle, sheep and goats have already been culled since the disease broke out on a commercial farm near the village of Camperdown, some 40km northwest of Durban, and spread to two more commercial farms.
It is the first outbreak of the disease in South Africa in 44 years and is thought to have been imported through Durban in pig swill from the Middle East or the Far East.
Meat and live animal exports from the area have been halted and the loss of South Africa’s formal foot-and-mouth disease free status could introduce a further three-month delay to the resumption of exports.
The European Union, New Zealand, Singapore, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Mauritius have banned all imports of South African meat and livestock. Namibia has halted meat imports only from the affected area. – Reuters