7,000 cattle to be destroyed

At least 7,000 cattle at Cold Storage Company (CSC) feedlots in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, would be destroyed after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, the ‘Herald’ reported on Wednesday. The newspaper quoted a senior quarantine officer in the Department of Veterinary Services as saying that the cattle would be slaughtered and that the European Union, the Southern African Development Community and the World Organisation for Animal Health would be officially informed of the outbreak. Land, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister Joseph Made said on Tuesday that the disease would be contained but called for all farmers’ co-operation. He was quoted saying that vaccines had been airlifted from Namibia as back up. According to the report, the outbreak was detected at the CSC firm’s Willsgrove feedlot, about 15 km from Bulawayo, off Harare Road. The CSC, Zimbabwe’s sole beef exporting agency, had an annual export quota of 9,100 mt to the EU and 5,000 mt to South Africa, the report said. All beef exports to the EU and other African markets were immediately suspended on Monday.