SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN News Briefs

SOUTH AFRICA: Tanzania bans meat imports

Tanzania has banned imports of meat and meat products of cloven-hoofed
animals from South Africa where there is an outbreak of foot-and-mouth
disease, agencies reported on Thursday. Reminscere Kweka, livestock
development director in the Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture, said that the
move is aimed at protecting more than 15 million cattle in Tanzania from the
disease.

Tanzania is the 36th country to ban the importation of meat products of
cloven-hoofed animals from South Africa. Fifteen European Union and eighteen
other countries have already done so.
Foot-and-mouth disease broke out in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Province in
September, threatening about a million livestock in the region.

The disease is a viral animal infection. However, it can be transmitted to
human beings through consuming infected meat products, or contact with
animal fluids and dung. About one-third of KwaZulu-Natal falls into a
recently-declared quarantine zone, all cloven-hoofed animals within the zone
are currently being vaccinated against the disease or destroyed.