FMB scare, a wake-up call
Mmegi Editor | Thursday April 14, 2016 11:33
Following the discovery of the animal, a carrier of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), the Department of Veterinary Services suspended animal movement in the affected areas.
Since the beginning of the week, the movement of cloven-hoofed animals and their products was stopped, into, out of and within Zone 11 (Southern, Kgatleng, South East and Kweneng districts). Additionally, slaughter of cloven-hoofed animals at all slaughter facilities in Zone 11 is suspend with immediate effect and beef export to European Union (EU) and other trading partners is suspended with immediate effect until further notice.
This is embarrassing and scary. It is a sign that we are not doing enough to protect our beef, which is our second largest import.
How does an infected wild animal break into farmlands, whose farmers are dependent on beef business without notice?
We appeal to the minister to ensure that measures are put in place immediately to protect our livestock, as any exposure to the FMD in European market is very sensitive. Any suggestion of FMD outbreak is an alarm that can lead to long-term suspension or even cancellation of our beef products to the EU. The Botswana Meat Commission has seen a lot of these in the last few years, and any more disruptions will spell doom to our economy.
While we believe the call is simple enough - keep the buffalo, a well-known FMD mole, away from farmlands – this was bound to happen. While people are required to get permits to transport live animals, there is still a lot of animal movement at gates, which are at times left open without a guard there. That is reckless and should be dealt with.
The permits were created for a purpose. The area in question is no place for a buffalo. What then happened? How did it pass through many disease control gates without being noticed? Could it be because the disease control gates, or the fence, are not secure enough?
Another problem is that the cordon fences in many places have collapsed. Members of Parliament have raised the issue many times, but it was never taken as a priority.
This leaves those investigating with a lot on their plate.
Our hope is that the tests for FMB from the dead animal come back negative. Whatever the case, this should be a lesson going forward.
We should protect our beef as much as we protect our diamonds.
Today’s thought
“In this day and age when we do so much business in foreign trade, we need the ability to identify trace an animal very quickly, identifying where it came from - where it has been, and where it is at today.”
- Mike Johanns