FMD on South Africa but they''re vaccinating!

Originally from: Farmtalking
                        
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2–7–1442_1561329,00.html

Pretoria – A disaster and the loss of millions of rands is threatening the Letaba Valley area in Limpopo after the dreaded foot-and-mouth disease broke through the buffer zone next to the Kruger National Game Park.

This comes about three weeks after an outbreak of the disease in a dip tank in a controlled area south of the Letaba River.

The situation has since worsened to such an extent that even yoghurt and cheese are being confiscated from farm labourers at road blocks.

Dr Theo de Jager of AgriLetaba in Tzaneen told Beeld on Wednesday that a broken fence on a government farm possibly led to the spread of the disease outside the controlled area.

The fence between the Letaba Ranch and the controlled area has been broken for the past three months.

There have been problems in the past with this broken fence. The area is continuously monitored for foot-and-mouth.

"We have a file as thick as the Bible in which we have asked the government up to three times a month to fix the fence because foot-and-mouth spreads so quickly."

Govt says outbreak under control

He said the outbreak of the disease outside the buffer zone came from infected animals that had moved through the broken fence.

Segoati Mahlangu of the national department of agriculture said on Wednesday the fence was monitored and repaired regularly.

"We can't help it if elephants break it or if poachers cut it. We repair it regularly."

He said the outbreak was under control and it was still within the buffer zone of 25km alongside the game reserve and in the quarantine area of 15 to 30km between Giyani and Phalaborwa.

However, De Jager said the area was much larger than this.

"It stretches from Giyani, past the Letaba Dam, Mooketsi, Tzaneen to Gravelotte. It includes thousands of hectares."

He said the effect of the outbreak was being underestimated.

Millions of rands worth of citrus in the Letaba region could be withheld from export because of the disease.

De Jager said that although citrus products were seldom affected by the disease, countries to which South Africa exported could place a ban on imports.

"Japan, China, the United States and the European Union have very strict import rules. Farmers are concerned because we are in the middle of the export season."

Hunters spent R500m

In addition, millions of rands are being lost by the hunting industry, as hunters are not allowed in this area.

De Jager said that last year foreign hunters spent more than R500m in this region alone. Now, not even meat was being allowed out of the area.

Meanwhile, the first round of vaccinations against foot-and-mouth disease was completed in the area on Wednesday, said Mahlangu. No deaths among animals with the disease had been reported so far.

Meat and dairy products have been confiscated at 42 roadblocks in the area.

Regular inspections of cattle, cloven-hoofed animals as well as meat are being carried out constantly.
                        

Originally from: Bill
                        
Of course they will vaccinate, they can't start killing everything in sight because in economic terms wildlife (including herds of buffalo) is more important than cattle.

Veterinary Cordon fencing might be slowing down FMD but is taking its toll in other ways. Migratory routes for lion have been blocked, denying them (and their prey) access to natural salt licks. Hence weakened immune systems and an AIDS epidemic amongst the lions of the Kruger.

Same thing is happening in the Okavango Delta in Botswana where hundreds of kilometres of Veterinary Cordon fence separate the wildlife from cattle ranches to the east of Maun.

Anyone interested in visiting Botswana this January? Shirley and I are going and have two spare places.

All the best,
Bill.