14 Nov 2013

Transportation of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) samples to Gaborone is currently by road transport using courier service.

The Assistant Minister of Agriculture Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi told Parliament on November 13 that air transport had been discontinued since 2011 since Air Botswana notified them of capacity challenges regarding handling of dangerous materials.

Mr Molebatsi stated that the packaging and transportation of FMD samples was in line with international standards of the World Organisation for Animal health (OIE: Office International des Epizooties). He highlighted that there were two types of FMD samples tissues and sera.

The tissue samples were transported at -196 degrees Celsius in liquid nitrogen while sera samples were transported in cooler boxes with ice. All FMD samples, he said, were collected and transported under supervision of the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS). All FMD samples were tightly packed in layers to avoid any contamination or leakages.

Mr Molebatsi noted that since FMD investigation was usually a joint operation by DVS and Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI) which was a reference laboratory for OIE FMD diagnosis, BVI provides technical experts to ensure proper sample collection and packaging for delivery to BVI laboratory.

The minister was responding to a question asked by the Member of Parliament for Okavango Mr Bagalatia Arone, who had asked the minister to state how collected samples of the Foot and Mouth Disease are transported from sites to laboratories in Gaborone. MP Arone also asked the minister to state whether the samples are transported according to the standards of the OIE so as to warrant accuracy. Ends