Foot-and-Mouth disease threatens North East District

These revelations were made by Minister of Agriculture,Christian de Graff, during a special meeting of the Francistown City full council on Monday. De Graff said that the disease was found in cattle in Kitwe, a communal area in the Plumtree sub-district of the Matabeleland South Province, only 30 kilometres from the Botswana-Zimbabwe border. As is common in border areas outbreaks on either side of the border soon spread to the neighbouring country.

"Outbreaks of FMD in southern Zimbabwe have a history of spreading into Botswana," he said. "In August 2001, an outbreak in the Plumtree sub-district eventually spilled over into Botswana in February 2002, resulting in the Matsiloje outbreak.