Ray of hope for zone 6 and 7

ONALENNA MODIKWA
Staff Writer | Friday April 13, 2012 00:00

The Minister of Agriculture, Christiaan De Graaf, has officially announced that the disease control project is drawing to a close with 99 percent of farmers already compensated and preparations for restocking well underway.

Bobirwa and Matsiloje regions are known as zones 6 and 7 respectively. It took almost four years before zone 7 could be officially declared FMD-free after the disease broke out in 2006. The new found status was short-lived as the disease recurred last year.

The disease was controlled by a combination of vaccination and culling of cattle in the affected areas. In zone 6, a containment area was established in which all the affected areas were cordoned off and all the cattle slaughtered.

At least 51 000 cattle were slaughtered in the two zones. In zone 7, the movement protocol has been revised to allow farmers to restock on their own including with cattle brought from outside the zone.

Cattle in zone 7 will be subjected to vaccination at four months intervals until it can be fully demonstrated that the virus is no longer circulating. Thereafter, an application will be made to the World Organisation of Animal Health.

The effectiveness of vaccination, which depends on good coverage, will determine how long it will take to demonstrate absence of the disease. This will also depend on farmers' cooperation to present their animals for vaccination and sampling. Minister de Graaf has assured farmers during his meetings in Bobonong, Robelela and Selebi-Phikwe that efforts will be made to ensure that the restocking exercise is as transparent and as farmer-friendly as possible. This includes delivering cattle as close as possible to farmers and ensuring a completely random allocation of cattle so that all farmers can have equal access to the available quality stock. Government has also taken a deliberate move to support zone 7 farmers by ensuring that cattle for restocking is purchased only from within zone 7. However restocking in zone 6 may be slightly delayed by the mandatory waiting period of a minimum of three months once all the animals have been removed and surveillance has demonstrated absence of the virus.

'We shall then apply to the World Organisation for Animal Health to officially recognise zone 6 as FMD-free without vaccination,' the minister said. The disease outbreak also weighed heavily on the council's stock feed expenditure as the local authority attempted to control the disease by keeping livestock in kraals.

The council had been keeping the affected livestock in kraals since last December, incurring a lot more expenses than expected on stock feed. The council was forced to sell the impounded livestock regularly starting March this year. Despite the positive strides in controlling the disease, the minister has however warned against the constant risk of the trans-boundary spread of the disease. He said that transmission is facilitated by the rampant illegal cross-border human and livestock movement.

'It is therefore very important for all the cattle to be fully vaccinated. Poor vaccination coverage as it happened in December 2011 when barely 60 percent of cattle were vaccinated, only increases the risk of disease resurfacing,' he said.

Councillors here expressed gratitude over the efforts to put the disease under control but suggested that government should come up with initiatives to save zone 7 that should also include demarcation of the zone.

They also expressed fear that the economic situation in Zimbabwe makes the country's market unviable hence government should dominate Asian markets. Government has an agreement with Harare to sell FMD cattle to the Cold Storage Commission of Zimbabwe.

So far the country has generated about P50 million from this sale agreement. The Botswana Meat Commission started exporting live cattle to Zimbabwe in August last year and so far 6 000 cattle have been exported.

'There is a huge potential of market in Africa therefore we should not only rely on the European market, and we should not rely on Zimbabwe as an alternative market,' said one councilor. They also wanted to know why the Botswana Vaccine Institute as a magnificent scientific institute and the first of its kind in the region, cannot be fully utilized to produce effective medication that would eradicate the disease.

They also called for the agriculture pitso in zone 7 to allow farmers to share their experiences and ideas on how to tackle the situation. The minister expressed that Botswana has the best zoning system and is rated highly in Africa. He expressed concern that farmers also contribute to the spread of the disease by rustling cattle and vandalising cordon fences.

'Farmers should own up to the situation. Twelve percent of our cattle population is stray cattle and this shows that we do not look after our cattle,' he said. He urged councillors to look at the sale of live cattle to Zimbabwe differently and consider that they are in a red zone.

'We will continue to support our citizens but farmers must also take responsibility,' he said. De Graaf said he is very proud of BVI as countries even from Europe buy from it.