Second outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Tibet

DHARAMSHALA, May 2: Over 500 cattle heads have been culled in the latest outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the Tibetan capital region of Lhasa in central Tibet. China’s state news agency Xinhua in a report today said the National Foot-and-mouth Disease Reference Laboratory confirmed the spread of the cattle epidemic in a village in Lhasa region as type A foot-and-mouth disease. China's Ministry of Agriculture on April 25 had said that 145 heads of cattle in the region were showing suspected signs of the disease. “Local authorities sealed off and sterilised the infected area, where 527 heads of cattle have been culled and safely disposed of, so as to prevent spreading the disease,” the report cited the ministry as saying. The latest confirmation of the outbreak comes days after an earlier report of the epidemic’s spread in Shigatse city, south of Lhasa. According to the World Organization for Animal Health, there were 32 cases of foot and mouth disease in Shigatse, and in total, 156 cattle, sheep and goats were culled to prevent the disease from spreading. Last year in September, the highly infectious disease was traced in livestock in the Nyingtri region of central Tibet where a total of 612 head of cattle and pigs were culled. FMD is an acute contagious febrile disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids. The disease can potentially cost huge economic loss to farming and nomadic families who make their living from livestock.