Foot and Mouth Disease: Garden Route stats

Update

GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - In the latest update received from the Garden Route Municipality, the latest Foot and Mouth Disease for the Garden Route area is as follows:

FMD stats: Garden Route

Affected municipal area: Mossel Bay

FMD-affected farms (officially confirmed): 5
FMD-suspect site(s), pending test results: 5 (increased with 2)
Number of farms vaccinated: 74 (increased with 12)
Number of farms visited for inspections: 114
FMD-Vaccines administered to date: 13 337 (increased with 678)
Livestock infected: Cattle
Number of Vehicle Control Points around quarantined area: 7 static and 4 roaming

FMD carcass disposal

In terms of the burial of the infected carcasses and materials, the following conditions must be adhered to:
The choice of the location of the burial area must have minimal risk of surface and ground water contamination.
There must be no water sources within 100metres of the burial site.
The wind direction must be taken into account in eliminating the nuisance impacts such as odours.
The trenches/pits used for burial must be at a maximum depth of 4m.
The bottom and sides of the trench must be lined with agricultural plastic before the disposal of infected carcasses and materials to prevent any leakage into the underground water.
Infected carcasses and materials must be covered with lime and specifically not chlorinated lime.
The top-most carcass and/or materials must be at least 1.2m from the surface level.
Any boreholes located downstream from the proposed burial site, must be used to monitor impacts of the activity on groundwater.
The burial sites must not be located in or close to natural surface drainage areas.
The site must be rehabilitated once disposal has ceased.

Closure of roads: Applications and roads closed for traffic

Applications for the closure of Western Cape Provincial Roads must be directed to Gerhard Otto, [email protected]. Residents will be able to access these roads, but not other motorists or cyclists.

Role players involved in approving these applications, include the GRDM Disaster Management Centre, Western Cape Provincial Government Roads Engineer, the South African Police Service and the affected local municipality law enforcement.

Western Cape vaccination priorities

It is important to note that when an animal is vaccinated and exposed to FMD, it gets less sick, shows milder clinical signs (fewer sores, less lameness), and they recover faster.

Phase 1: Infected herd and others within a 3km radius of an index farm (if lesions are found outside 3km, expand to 10km).
Phase 2: Commonage and informal area livestock.
Phase 3: High-risk herds (farms close to free-roaming cattle, close to abattoirs and where there is a lot of movement, etc.).
Phase 4: Dairy herds.
Phase 5: Beef herds.