Fresh outbreak of foot-and-mouth deals blow to livestock industry

Zimbabwe's livestock industry was dealt another blow this week with reports of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) on two farms south of the capital, Harare. Officials told IRIN an investigation was under way to determine the source of the infection and that Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland East provinces had been put under a "movement embargo" pending the outcome. "It is still too soon to determine the source of the infection, but we suspect that it may be linked to previous outbreaks in Masvingo province," Stuart Hargreaves, director of Zimbabwe's veterinary services, told IRIN. In June an outbreak of FMD hit Chivi and Gutu districts in Masvingo, forcing the Department of Veterinary Services to suspend all movement of livestock. "We had hoped that the situation would have been stabilised by now, but the most recent outbreak is at the centre of the export zone. This means that it is unlikely that there would be a resumption of beef exports to the EU [European Union] in the foreseeable future," Hargreaves said. Since the first outbreak of FMD in August 2001, in the southern parts of the country, Zimbabwe has suspended exports of chilled boneless beef to the EU. The country had an EU beef quota of 9,000 mt. According to a recent report by Zimbabwe's Cattle Producers Association (CPA), efforts to control the disease are being hampered by the illegal movement of cattle from declared FMD areas, as cash-strapped households sell their livestock to raise money to buy food have contributed to its spread. "The disease has also been worsened by the movement of cattle from areas that have been worst hit by drought to those that have better pastureland," the CPA said. Meanwhile, the official Herald newspaper on Thursday reported that the government was negotiating with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to make available foreign currency for the procurement of vaccines from the Botswana Vaccine Institute. According to the newspaper, agriculture minister Joseph Made made an urgent appeal for US $2 million (about Zim $1.6 billion) but the RBZ allocated an initial amount of US $700,000 (Zim $576 million. A further US $300,000 (Zim $247 million) would be released next week, and the central bank has undertaken to make further allocations of foreign currency to ensure continuity of the vaccine supply, the newspaper said.