FMD in southern Angola raises fear

THE veterinarian of the Opuwo district has called on farmers in the Kunene Region to refrain from taking livestock into Angola and bringing them back into Namibia without the animals having been checked for diseases.

John Shoopala made this call on Friday after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Angola’s Cuando Cubango province was announced on June 4.About 250 cases of FMD have been recorded so far, of which 30 cattle died from the disease, while 22 were destroyed.Shoopala said he learnt from the World Animal Health Information Database that Angola has been experiencing an FMD outbreak since February this year.The outbreak was confirmed by veterinarians in Angola on March 5, but was only disclosed and posted on the World Animal Health Information Database website on June 4.According to the database, the FMD outbreak was reported at Luiana and Rivungo villages in Angola.The last time Angola had recorded an FMD outbreak was over 30 years ago in 1974.The World Animal Health Information Database, however, does not state what the current situation of the FMD outbreak is, or what happened to the rest of the cases reported.Shoopala fears that livestock of Angolan farmers are moving all over the country, and it is very easy for FMD to spread to Namibia’s Kunene Region.Namibian livestock are driven into Angola and back, and animals from Angola are brought into Namibia without being checked properly, he told Nampa.’There are no fences in Angola, so movement of livestock is unrestricted, and that can spread the disease faster to the entire country, including to Cunene Province in Angola that borders Namibia’s Kunene Region,’ Shoopala said.Angola’s Cuando Cubango Province borders the Caprivi, Kavango and Ohangwena regions in Namibia.Shoopala has sent out teams to border posts to repair kraals in order to check all livestock that come from Angola. Such animals are vaccinated before they are quarantined and branded with the letter A, meaning they come from Angola. – Nampa