SOUTHERN AFRICA: Weekly Round-up 45

SOUTH AFRICA: Foot-and-mouth quarantine zone extended

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.
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.