Battle against FMD persists in Mash Central

MASHONALAND Central Province is still battling the foot and mouth disease (FMD), amid unavailability of vaccines and rampant illegal movement of cattle from affected districts.

Provincial veterinary officer Dr Wimort Chikurunhe confirmed the number of infected districts have increased to six from two.

When the disease was detected on June 25, only Rushinga and Mt Darwin were placed under quarantine, but the Veterinary Services Department has added Muzarabani and Shamva on the list of districts under a total embargo.

Bindura and Mazowe are on a partial embargo because some places are not affected. About 38 dip tanks are infected, 1 172 clinical cases have been detected and 16 cattle have been culled.

“We believe the outbreak came into the country in late May without us knowing,” said Dr Chikurunhe.

“We cannot trade in pork, sheep, cattle and goats because of the infection. The disease rarely kills adult animals, that is the reason why the mortality rate is low. It is a disease more of social economic importance in that once it strikes, there is no way you can move a product from that area, especially for export purposes. All the animals were supposed to be vaccinated early, but we didn’t have enough vaccine for all dip tanks that are infected. We needed to boost vaccination within 21 days of infection, but we failed because of the shortage of vaccines.

“We are waiting for the vaccine since June and we are likely to get them at the end of this month. Meanwhile, the spread of the infection is from one dip tank and from one farm to the other. On July 17, we received 15 000 doses of vaccine, but the infection had spread. Mazowe and Bindura are also infected.”

Dr Chikurunhe said they had since stopped movement of cattle.

“Our first move was to stop movement of cattle, but the movement is taking place at night and difficult to control because political leaders are also involved,” he said.

“We need about five roadblocks in three districts to restrict movement of cattle, but we have no funding for these activities. At the moment we have roadblocks at Rushinga, Mt Darwin and another in Madziva.”

Dr Chikurunhe said foot and mouth was harboured in buffaloes and they pass the disease to cattle when they come in contact with them.

“Buffaloes are confined to Gonarezhou and Hwange National Park and outbreaks have been found in areas adjacent to these game parks,” he said.

“Mashonaland provinces and part of Midlands were always considered foot and mouth disease-clean areas.

“On June 25, an infection was detected at Bopoma Dip Tank in Rushinga and indications were that the outbreak was coming in from Mozambique. During the incubation period of the disease, three permits were issued to Mutungagore, Shamva and ignited an outbreak.

“The third permit was to Karoi, fortunately it did not mix with other cattle. After a meeting with our Mozambican counterparts at Nyamapanda, we discovered that they had an outbreak in November 2017 in a district called Dowa bordering with Malawi and they had infected Malawi, “he said.