Foot and Mouth Disease in Zimbabwe

ZIMBABWE - There have been five outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease in Matabeleland province in Zimbabwe.
calendar icon 11 May 2015
clock icon 1 minute read

The cases were discovered in cattle during routine farm inspections. The farm where the cases were found had recently purchased animals at a sale in Bulawayo and trace-back investigations revealed infection at source farms.

Infection was also detected at two neighbouring properties, one of which is Mbokodo feedlot, with an abbatoir on the same property.

Inspection of records revealed cattle originating from Mwenezi district in the infected zone, that were meant for direct slaughter at Mbokodo abattoir, were illegally diverted into the feedlot and are suspected to have introduced infection into the herd.

No other property that had sent cattle to the Bulawayo auction sale had infection.

Trace-forward inspections of all properties that received cattle from the auction sale revealed infection at four different sites. All the four infected sites had moved animals out after the date they received cattle from the auction.

In all there were 115 cases out of a susceptible population of 16595 cattle on the infected farms, and 6 animals were destroyed as a result.

TheCattleSite News Desk

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