GABORONE, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in South Africa has adversely affected dairy farmers, feedlot operators, retailers and the business community in neighboring Botswana, a cabinet minister revealed on Friday.
Briefing parliament on Friday, Botswana's Minister of Agriculture Christian De Graff said the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) has also been adversely affected since local beef destined to the European Union (EU) and other markets, which transit through South Africa, has been stopped.
He said as it is standard practice, the international community has banned importation of fresh livestock products from South Africa and this includes Botswana beef.
De Graff said since the FMD outbreak was reported in South Africa, the Ministry of Agriculture has banned the importation of live cloven-hoofed animals and unprocessed products derived from cloven -hoofed animals from that country.
However, the import ban excludes low-risk products like feedlots supplements, horse ration, pet food, poultry feeds and other non cloven-hoofed animal feeds.
"The Ministry of Agriculture has already embarked on intensive surveillance of all cloven animals that were imported from RSA from February 2011 prior to notification of the outbreak. In addition we will be starting surveillance along our border with RSA," he told parliament.
He said the ministry also continuously engages the veterinary authorities in South Africa to obtain updates on the FMD situation there.
"These updates are the only ones which can enable us to make informed decisions regarding review of import restrictions. Unfortunately, we have not yet received any information on the extent of the outbreak as well as control measures applied," he said.
De Graff said they have received communication from the EU head office in Brussels that the findings from the inspection they conducted in the country require immediate action from the government to in order to guarantee continued access of local beef to the EU.
"However, we are still waiting for the full report to guide our response to the issues they are raising. Given the seriousness of these protocols we are in the process of applying to the European Union to temporarily delist our export abattoirs to allow us to attend to the deficiencies identified. We are doing everything within our means to address this very important matter," he said.
Meanwhile, the Department of Veterinary Services has reported the re-emergence of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Kareng extension area in Ngamiland district, which is considered an FMD vaccination zone.
The department said further investigations are on going to establish the extent of the outbreak.
Consequently, the standard control measures have been put into place. These include emergency vaccination, movement restrictions, disease surveillance, and bio security and public education.
"Therefore the movement of cloven hoofed animals out of, within and into Kareng, Semboyo, Makakung, Bodibeng and Sehithwa extension areas has been suspended with immediate effect," the acting director of Veterinary Services, Kobedi Segale, said in a statement. 
