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Sukoluhle Ndlovu Midlands Correspondent
SHURUGWI District has been hit by severe foot-and-mouth disease, a development which is likely to adversely affect livestock movement and production.

An official with the Veterinary Services in the province, Dr Munyaradzi Chigiji, confirmed the development. He said he had visited Shurugwi to access the situation.

“There is an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Shurugwi. I’m in Shurugwi as we speak to assess the situation and find possible ways of containing it before it spreads to other districts in the province,” he said.

Dr Chigiji said his department would engage the services of the police to monitor the movement of cattle in the province since some areas like Mvuma, Mberengwa and Gokwe were red zones. “We are working with police to monitor the movement of meat from Mvuma, Mberengwa and Gokwe, which are red zones,” he said.

He said they had launched an educational campaign for communities to report suspected cases of foot and mouth as soon as possible, as well as avoiding consumption of meat suspected to be from affected cattle. Dr Chigiji also urged farmers to observe livestock movement restriction in order to minimise the spreading of the disease.

“We urge farmers to observe livestock movement restrictions to minimise the spread of the disease. For now, we have banned cattle movements in Mvuma and Mberengwa communal areas. Commercial areas, however, are exempted from the ban because no cases were detected in commercial farms,” he said.