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. |
