SOUTH AFRICA: Foot-and-mouth quarantine zone extended

JOHANNESBURG, 13 November (IRIN) - About a quarter of South Africa's eastern
KwaZulu-Natal province - almost two million hectares of land - was cordoned
off at the weekend pending the vaccination of many more cloven-hoofed
animals. The measure was announced after more foot-and-mouth disease
infections were discovered outside the original 15 km quarantine zone in the
central part of the province.

The provincial minister for agriculture, Narend Singh, told IRIN that the
financial impact of the new measures had yet to be assessed. He blamed the
spread of the disease on farmers illegally moving cattle, goats and sheep
out of the quarantine zone. "The new zone is huge, but we feel we can
confidently police it because most of it is already fenced and accessible by
road," Singh said.

Provincial authorities said that all imports and exports of cloven-hoofed
animals, products or kitchen refuse from this zone have been banned with
immediate effect. The vaccination of 1.3 million animals will begin
immediately. Upon vaccination, the province faces an automatic ban on all
cloven-hoofed animals for up to two years. More troops will be deployed in
the area to join the 900 already working at containing the spread of the
disease. A number of countries have already banned imports of certain
livestock and animal products from South Africa since the foot-and-mouth
outbreak was confirmed in October.