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151 Animals Destroyed In Foot And Mouth Battle

The number of animals killed in the foot-and-mouth outbreak which has hit farms in Al Hayer has risen to 151. Three farms in Al Hayer, located 85 kilometres south-east of Dubai on the Dubai to Al Ain Road, have reported that animals there have the disease.

Yesterday the farm owners confirmed that 101 cows and 50 goats had been destroyed. The additional cases were reported less than 48 hours after Ali Arab, Head of the Livestock Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, had declared that the UAE was foot-and-mouth free.

Special squads of soldiers were drafted into Al Hayer on Friday to slaughter the animals. The carcasses were then dumped in a three metre deep trench, covered with wood, and burnt. Yesterday the remains of the pyre were still smouldering at one of the farms while other animals, some showing the first signs of foot-and-mouth, wandered around freely.

Despite claims by Ministry of Agriculture officials that everything was being done to contain the outbreak the farms had not been quarantined and no efforts were being made keep people away from the farms.

The farms are located in a region, under the control of Al Ain Municipality, densely populated by cattle farms. It is estimated that in Al Heyer there are 3,000 cattle and a similar number of goats. Losses are estimated at Dh6,000 to Dh12,000 per cow.

Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious disease. It affects all cloven hoofed animals, although local vets have said dromedary camels are unaffected. The virus can survive for relatively long periods of time in the air, in food and rubbish and even in hides, hair and wool. Wind can spread the disease over long distances. It can also be ingested by foraging animals such as goats.

In Dubai, a municipal public health committee for livestock and poultry met yesterday to review the latest developments. The committee discussed measures to prevent the spread of the disease in the country.

The UAE news agency Wam said: "The committee discussed the situation in the light of local, regional and global reports in order to establish an emergency mechanism to contain and control the disease.

"An emergency committee, from representatives of the country's municipalities and Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, was set up to keep a vigilant eye on the national animal wealth. "The committee will meet regularly to assess the health condition of the animal wealth. Municipalities, on their part, will inform the committee of any cases  detected."

Wam did not specify what specific measures were to be taken to prevent the spread of the disease. Dubai Municipality are expected, today, to spell out what steps they will be taking to keep the emirate foot-and-mouth free.

Meanwhile, two large shipments of animals were turned back at the border between Ras Al Khaimah and Oman yesterday after veterinarians inspecting the animals suspected that some of them could be suffering from foot-and-mouth.

The animals were turned back at the Darah check point. The animals were sent back to Oman only hours after a federal order tightening restrictions on animal imports came into force in the emirate.

The order gives officials the right to ban animals from entering the country or to kill them if it is suspected that they were diseased. A senior Ras Al Khaimah municipality official denied that there were cases of foot-and-mouth in the emirate.

Livestock being burned on a farm. In Fujairah, local government vets and their assistants are undertaking an emirate wide vaccination programme against foot-and-mouth. So far only one case of the disease has been confirmed in the emirate.

In other regional developments, Iran is to distribute 2.5 million doses of foot-and-mouth vaccine to farmers in the Islamic republic. Veterinary chief Abbasali Motalebi said last week the disease had been discovered in sheep in three centres near the town of Shahroud, 250 kilometres east of Tehran.

In Saudi Arabia officials said that five cases of sick animals had been reported in Jeddah and Khamees Mishait, but the Ministry of Agriculture refused to confirm that they were suffering from foot-and-mouth. The animals were yesterday undergoing tests to determine what they were suffering from.

In Britain the agriculture ministry announced the number of outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in the country had risen to 282, although the nine new sites were all in areas already affected. The sites are in Cumbria, northwest England, and just over the border in the neighbouring county of Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland.

Foot-and-mouth Virus Spreads

More cases of foot-and-mouth disease were confirmed today as the list of events and attractions cancelled or closed continued to grow.

Six more outbreaks were confirmed at farms to take the total number of cases to 32.

Scotland and Northern Ireland recorded their first outbreaks as two farms in Dumfries and one in south Armagh were confirmed.

Both Scottish outbreaks were traced to animal movements from England including from Longtown market, Cumbria, which is known to have been a contact point for the potent virus.

Cases were also confirmed in Longtown and Penrith, Cumbria, as the foot-and-mouth crisis threatened to become an epidemic.

Next week's Crufts dog show, due to be held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, was cancelled and the Forestry Commission sealed off land to the public.

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown this morning briefed Cabinet colleagues on the crisis as preparations continued to allow some animals from uninfected areas to be sent for slaughter despite the ban on moving livestock.

The National Farmers' Union, which welcomed the plans, said the foot-and-mouth crisis would cost Britain's farming and food industry £775 million unless it was not brought under control within three months.

There were also fears that dwindling supplies of home-reared meat could soon run out as prices for cuts of beef, lamb and pork looked set to soar.

Junior agriculture minister Baroness Hayman, deputising for Mr Brown at the Ministry of Agriculture's daily press briefing, said special licences to get livestock again moving to abattoirs could be issued to farms in disease-free areas as early as Monday.

Britain's chief veterinary officer, Jim Scudamore, said all but "one or two" of the confirmed outbreaks had been linked to outbreaks elsewhere or contacts within infected animals.

Otherwise, the disease had spread on the wind from infected farms.

He said investigations were continuing into the source of the outbreak, although Burnside Farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland, was still believed to be the oldest recognised case.

Claims that the uncleanliness on the farm may have contributed to the outbreak would be investigated by MAFF and the relevant local authority, he said.

More than 25,000 animals from confirmed sites have been slaughtered, including 3,400 cattle, 19,600 sheep, 1,750 pigs and one goat.

Mr Scudamore said officials were now conducting risk assessments on whether wild animals such as deer, wild boar and even hedgehogs could aid the spread of the disease.

He added: "The advice is that we deal with the main risks and with the susceptible species."

Meanwhile, John Edmonds, general secretary of the giant GMB union, warned of a "jobs epidemic" unless the foot-and-mouth crisis was stopped soon.

More than 1,000 employees at meat processing plants and other factories have now been laid-off or are on short-time working, he said, while up to 20,000 workers in the slaughter industry and 40,000 in the bacon and ham processing sector faced an uncertain future if the crisis continues.

Mr Scudamore, however, said he expected an increasing number of cases over the next week, although they would most likely be linked to movements which took place before the movement ban brought in last Friday.

The incubation period is known to take anything from a matter of hours up to 21 days.

Other worries emerging today included a shortage of disinfectant used to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth.

The Country Land and Business Association said some areas of the country had virtually none of the vital liquid, which is used to disinfect feet, clothing, vehicles and entrances.

The two most senior figures in the Church of England, meanwhile, called on the country to pray for farmers and communities affected by the foot-and-mouth crisis.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, and the Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope, asked for prayers to be said in churches across Britain on Sunday.

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Foot And Mouth Disease Spreads To The Whole Of The Korean Peninsula

Monday, March 18th 2019 - 08:20 UTC

Full article

Sources across three regions of North Korea reported that FMD outbreaks in their respective areas have led to the death of many work cattle on collective farms (Moon Yo-han/Reuters)

In the wake of the South Korean government's battle to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease following an outbreak in three farmhouses in the cities of Anseong and Chungju earlier this year, North Korean livestock industry insiders have reported that Pyongyang is also struggling with a nationwide spread of the disease outbreak that began in the middle of January.

Multiple sources across three regions of North Korea reported that foot-and-mouth outbreaks in their respective areas have led to the death of many work cattle on collective farms.

During the early stage of the outbreak, it was assumed that the cows had died from malnutrition. But as the number of deaths increased, a veterinary sanitary agency launched an investigation and concluded that it was foot-and-mouth disease.

Foot-and-mouth disease is a type 1 viral, legally-recognized communicable disease that occurs in cloven-hoofed animals such as cows, pigs, goats, dears and camels involving the formation of blisters around the animal's mouth and feet, with a fatality rate between 5 – 55%.

Foot-and-mouth disease is highly contagious, infecting the respiratory tract and transmitted through the air, with one infected animal sufficient to rapidly infect the rest of the herd. For cows, the incubation period is only 3 to 8 days and once infected, symptoms appear quickly. There is no cure, but tissue culture vaccines are used as a preventive method.

South Korea's intelligence agency has also received information on the outbreak in North Korea and is monitoring the spread of the disease and the country's response. Foot-and-mouse disease can spread through the air, and if it reaches the border region, the South Korean authorities will have to enact measures to deal with it.

When a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak is detected in South Korea, a nationwide ban on the transport of all cloven-hoofed animals is issued and livestock in farms around the outbreak are preventatively culled.

When the disease first emerged this winter in Anseong, the South Korean Ministry of Agriculture conducted a nationwide vaccination of all cows and carried out disinfection measures focusing on livestock farms and transportation routes.

North Korea also quarantines outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and announces measures for disinfection and cure. Pig and cow carcasses are buried and cloven-hoofed animals are banned from sale in the markets.

However, the vast majority of collective farms lack appropriate supplies such as disinfectants and quicklime. They also lack an understanding of the disease itself and frequently expect the disease to resolve itself naturally while in quarantine.

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