The Ministry of Agriculture has announced the lifting of measures imposed early this year to control an outbreak of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (cattle lung sickness) in the northern communal areas of Namibia.
“To date the mass vaccination of cattle in all affected regions has been completed achieving a 94% coverage,” Agriculture, Water and Land Reform Executive Director Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata said.
The disease, according to the Directorate of Veterinary Services, affects cattle and water buffaloes and is caused by Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides SC, a type of bacteria that attacks the lungs of susceptible animals.
As part of its containment measures, a complete ban on the movement of live animals around the affected areas had been put in place, with surveillance teams deployed and vaccination effected on all cattle in the affected areas.
This comes as the Directorate this month announced a foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in the Kabbe South Constituency of the Zambezi Region after 14 herds of cattle showed symptoms of the deadly disease.
FMD is a severe and highly contagious animal disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, deer, pigs, goats and sheep. It can be transboundary and can occur sporadically in any area free of the disease.
The latest outbreak comes eight months after the country had successfully controlled and contained the previous FMD outbreak. More than 150 cattle are reported to have died due to FMD-related causes in 2021.
