16 Feb 2014

The purified Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine produced by Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI) has been exported to Namibia, Egypt, Libya and Israel, Parliament has been told.

The Botswana FMD vaccine protects cattle, among others, against all the prevailing strains of FMD in Southern Africa which are: Southern African Territories (SAT) 1, 2 and 3.

This was said by the Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi, when responding to a parliamentary question from the MP for Maun East, Mr Frank Ramsden.

Mr Molebatsi said in Botswana, the vaccine was being used in Zone 7 and was used for the control of FMD in the containment zone in Zone 6.  Currently, he said it was not used in Ngamiland due to the high risk of the frequent FMD outbreaks which were controlled by the use of conventional vaccine.

“It should be noted that the conventional and purified vaccines have the same effectiveness, as they both give comparable protection levels, hence use of conventional vaccine to control the FMD in Ngamiland,” he added.

As part of progressive FMD control in Ngamiland, Mr Molebatsi said the purified FMD vaccine would be used in the protection zone that was being construction from Makalamabedi to Namibia Border.  This, he said would enable the ministry to undertake measures that would eventually change the FMD status of protection zone to FMD free with or without vaccination.

MP Ramsden had asked Mr Molebatsi whether other countries throughout the world used purified FMD vaccine from BVI to vaccinate their cattle against FMD. He also wanted to know why Botswana was not using the vaccine, particularly in Ngamiland where FMD outbreaks were frequent even when reports from BVI indicated that the importing countries found the vaccine effective. Ends