Foot and Mouth Reports: Mongolia, Zimbabwe Hit by Disease
GLOBAL - Few outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease have been reported in recent months, but Zimbabwe and Mongolia are the countries that have reported the disease, in cattle and goats.
19 August 2016
1 minute read
Zimbabwe was affected most recently, with twelve outbreaks found in July. Most of these outbreaks were in cattle of varying age groups sharing the same grazing and watering points, but one of the outbreaks affected goats. There were 559 cases in cattle and 24 in goats.
The outbreaks occurred in the Midlands and Matabeleland North regions, in villages where vaccinations were not carried out due to lack of funds.
The country's report to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said that prolonged quarantine orders are resulting in illegal cattle movement as farmers move cattle for various socio-economic reasons. Roadblocks manned with police and veterinary personnel are in place to control movement of livestock as well as farmer education campaigns.
Weekly inspections are currently on-going, and other control measures include surveillance outside the quarantine area.
Zimbabwe also suffered an outbreak in cattle in June in Matabeleland South. There were 17 cases in a herd of 1600 cattle.
Mongolia's outbreak affected 43 cattle on a farm in the Govi-Sumber region. Three animals died as a result of the outbreak. Quarantine, movement controls and screening are all being used to control the disease.
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