Zimbabwe
Fights To Control Foot And Mouth Disease
HARARE, Zimbabwe
(PANA)-Zimbabwe government agriculture officials said they had intensified
efforts to control a raging foot and mouth disease that has cost the economy
hundreds of millions of dollars in lost export revenue.
Director of Veterinary
Services Stuart Hargreaves said more than 100,000 cattle would be vaccinated,
raising the number of treated animals to 400,000 since the outbreak of the
disease.
Foot and mouth broke out in
the southern city of Bulawayo in
late August, but has since spread to many areas in the country, forcing
authorities to suspend all beef exports.
Hargreaves said the source
of the disease had yet to identified, but suspected it originated from a game
park in the south of the country where livestock could have mixed with buffaloes.
Cattle in virtually the
entire southern half of Zimbabwe have been quarantined to prevent the spread of
the disease, whose outbreak has led to fears the country could run short of
beef even for domestic consumption.