Tanzania bans meat imports

Tanzania has banned imports of meat and meat products of cloven-hoofed animals from South Africa where there is an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, agencies reported on Thursday. Reminscere Kweka, livestock development director in the Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture, said that the move is aimed at protecting more than 15 million cattle in Tanzania from the disease.

Tanzania is the 36th country to ban the importation of meat products of cloven-hoofed animals from South Africa. Fifteen European Union and eighteen other countries have already done so.

Foot-and-mouth disease broke out in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province in September, threatening about a million livestock in the region.

The disease is a viral animal infection. However, it can be transmitted to human beings through consuming infected meat products, or contact with animal fluids and dung.
About one-third of KwaZulu-Natal falls into a recently-declared quarantine zone, all cloven-hoofed animals within the zone are currently being vaccinated against the disease or destroyed.