Botswana 
Foot-and-mouth outbreak stalls Batswana exports

"The standing committee on food chain and animal health agreed to temporarily suspend the importation into the EU of de-boned fresh meat of these species [bovine, ovine and caprine species and farmed and wild game animals] from the whole territory of Botswana," an EU statement said.

The EU would re-evaluate its position within three months while neighbouring South Africa, which has just recovered from a similar outbreak and EU ban, has extended its ban to include live cloven hoofed animals, dairy products, meat products, hides and skins and other products, and posted special patrols at its border with Botswana.

The outbreak was first reported on a communal farm in the Matsiloje extension area in the Francistown district to the northeast of the country on Saturday. It is the second outbreak in two years.

"The farmer saw some of his cattle were lame and immediately reported it to the veterinary assistant in charge of the area who alerted his superiors," Neo Mapitse, principle veterinary officer for the Botswana Department of Animal Health and Production told IRIN. "On Sunday a team which included a foot and mouth expert, a virologist and a laboratory technician were dispatched to investigate and immediately suspected foot and mouth disease."

By Monday morning the government had banned cattle exports or the movement of cattle throughout the country, and by Tuesday 400 head of cattle out of a suspected infected population of 3,000 on communal and commercial farms had been destroyed, Mapitse said.

With livestock byproducts one of Botswana's major exports next to diamonds, the department also notified its export markets that it had closed abattoirs, placed a countrywide ban on slaughtering, and suspended exports. The slaughtering ban was lifted in certain areas on Thursday.

Although preliminary tests indicate foot-and-mouth disease, the department was still waiting for the result of an internationally recognised test to confirm the outbreak, Mapitse said. It was also awaiting an indication of the strain and origin of the outbreak.

Livestock owners would be compensated for the destroyed livestock, he said.

Meanwhile, Botswana's northern neighbour Zimbabwe, itself still under a self-imposed export ban to the EU following a similar outbreak, has warned that it does not have the foreign exchange to buy the vaccines needed to keep its own outbreak in check.

Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a severe economic crisis and also does not have enough foreign currency for many vital purchases including fertiliser and fuel.

Stuart Hargreaves, principle veterinary officer in Zimbabwe's Department of Agriculture told IRIN that appeals over the last two years for funds to buy 2.3 million units of vaccine from its supplier in Botswana had been unsuccessful.

Commenting on speculation that Botswana's outbreak may have originated in Zimbabwe, Hargreaves said that this had not been confirmed. 

However, he said there was some cattle smuggling across the border by Zimbabweans taking advantage of the favourable exchange rate of the Botswana Pula, the strongest currency in the region, on the parallel market.

"The guy in Botswana gets the cattle cheap, the guy in Zimbabwe gets a good exchange rate, they're both happy," he said.

He added that most foot-and-mouth infections including those occurring in Europe, were from illegal imports, not from certified imports.

South Africa's Agriculture Ministry said that it would wait for a formal request for assistance from Zimbabwe for vaccines before deciding what to do.

"Zimbabwe is part of NEPAD (the New Partnership for Africa's Development) and SADC (the Southern African Development Community) so we will look at it once we receive a formal request," ministry spokesman David Tshabalala told IRIN.

Source: UN agency IRIN

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