Namibia’s agriculture ministry has announced the end of trade and movement restrictions on cattle from Kabbe North Constituency in the Northeast of the country. A region which had an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, FMD, first detected in August 2019.
This means Namibian beef can now be exported again.
Kabbe’s chief veterinary officer, Albertina Shilongo says more than 96% of the cattle in the region have been successfully vaccinated against FMD.
Shilongo adds that all the indications are that the FMD outbreak has been successfully controlled. Hence, the decision to lift all restrictions that were put in place for the purposes of controlling the outbreak.
The viral disease affects cattle, sheep and other cloven-hoofed animals but does not affect human beings. It causes lesions and lameness in the animals. The latest incident was last detected was located in the Zambezi region, in December 2019.
According to Namibia’s national FMD contingency plan, the restrictions have been lifted after three months from the last confirmed case in the FMD infected zone considering no new cases have been detected.