DURBAN - THE Red Meat Producers Organisation (RPO) has called on the government to intensify efforts to contain the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.
This is after tests conducted last week by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development confirmed an outbreak in Mtubatuba in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
“The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in KwaZulu-Natal is a setback for the red meat industry,” said RPO chairperson Koos van der Rys.
He added that if the disease was not contained it could have a negative impact on exports.
According to the department’s statement, it collected samples on May 26 during routine disease surveillance, after local veterinary officials noticed cattle showing suspicious lesions at one communal location, and the diagnosis was confirmed the next day by the Onderstepoort Veterinary Research Laboratory as being foot-andmouth disease.
“A team of officials from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development are conducting further investigations to determine the extent of the outbreak. The control measures will be determined by the findings of this investigation,” said a statement issued on Friday.
KwaZulu-Natal livestock owners and farmers have been urged to be on high alert following the outbreak.
The department has issued a ban on the movement of live cloven-hoofed animals into and out of, or through, the affected districts.
“In an effort to prevent further spread of the disease, an immediate temporary standstill of all cloven-hoofed animals, including livestock and game, has been imposed in the district municipalities of King Cetshwayo and Umkhanyakude, as well as the local municipalities of Nongoma, Ulundi and Pongola in the Zululand District Municipality,” the statement read.
The department has also appealed to farmers in the affected districts to observe biosecurity measures and not to allow any new animals into their herds, and to minimise the movement of their own herds to other farms.
The disease affects cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and other cloven-hoofed animals (domestic and wild). The major clinical features of the disease include fever, lameness, and the appearance of vesicles and sores in the mouth, feet, teats and mammary glands. Pain and discomfort from these vesicles and sores lead to other signs of disease such as depression, excessive salivation, lameness, and reluctance to eat, move or stand.
The department said the disease did not affect human beings and consumers had no reason to be concerned.
THE MERCURY