24 Jul 2013

The deputy director in the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS), Dr Kekgonne Baipoledi has appealed to the farming community in the periphery of Zone 6 (Matsiloje extension area) to consider selling their livestock to the government for the restocking exercise in the area.

Briefing the media in Francistown on Tuesday, Dr Baipoledi, who is also the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) coordinator said 16 000 goats and sheep were needed for the restocking exercise. He said government would buy a goat for P700, a billy goat for P1 400, a heifer for P2 500 while a bull would be bought at P3 500.

Dr Baipoledi said the purchasing exercise would commence next week to give his department ample time to insert the animals with bolus and ear tags before they could be given to farmers after three months. He said so far P6.1 million had been paid to farmers who opted for cash and a total of P59 000 had been paid to 85 villagers who were engaged during the de-population exercise.

Dr Baipoledi said the de-population exercise commenced on June 10 and finished on July 3, adding that the 90-day surveillance period started the same day the last animal was killed on July 3.

He said while surveillance on the sentinel flock in the containment zone continued, other projects such as the re-alignment of the cordon fence and re-zoning would be on-going. Dr Baipoledi said Zone 6 would be re-zoned to have part of it forming the buffer zone, saying after that in the event of an outbreak it would be possible to vaccinate just like it was done in Zone 7.

He said the realignment of the cordon fence would be done in such a way that it was far away from the Botswana Meat Commission abattoir. Furthermore, he said it was anticipated that the realignment, which started in July 4, would be completed in September before the restocking exercise.

He noted that some of the measures that his department would also take to curb the transmission of FMD were to repair the fence along the Botswana/Zimbabwe border and the Zone 3C fence.

For his part,  the North East District Commissioner (DC), Mr Rapetse Mathumo commended the media for publicising the depopulation exercise, saying when approached the farmers were already aware of what was happening and expected of them.

He said the FMD team has come up with suggestions on how some of the affected farmers and the herdsmen could be assisted by the government prior to restocking.

The DC however said the suggestions could not be made public until relevant authorities had reviewed them and possibly implemented them.  ENDS