Philippines imposes restrictions on African cattle

By Georgi Gyton

- Last updated on GMT

A total of 1,430 were marked out as being susceptible
A total of 1,430 were marked out as being susceptible

Related tags Livestock Philippines Oie Beef

The Philippine Department of Agriculture has order a temporary ban to be placed on the imports of cattle products from Botswana, Africa, following an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

Proceso J Alcala, agriculture secretary, called for the immediate suspension of processing and evaluation of the application and issuance of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Import Clearance to FMD-prone animals and their products and by-products, from Botswana.

The Department of Agriculture has also instructed veterinary quarantine officers at all major ports to impede and confiscate the shipment of cattle products from the country in order to guard against the spread of the disease.

Alcala said the order was necessary to protect the health of the local livestock population, especially as the Philippines is presently free from FMD.

A report was submitted to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) at the end of October, after an outbreak of the listed disease in Botswana was discovered.

A total of 1,430 cattle grazing in a communal area in Gumare, Ngamiland, was marked out as susceptible, with 44 cases reported so far.

According to the OIE, the source of the outbreak was through contact with wild species. Cattle were displaying signs of lameness and drooling. While normally a regularly vaccinated zone, the suspect herd missed a routine vaccination in August, when access was cut off due to flooding.

Control measures have been fully implemented, with more than 28,000 cattle now vaccinated in the area surrounding the outbreak, and there have been no reports that the disease has spread outside the original outbreak.

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