AMMAN — Since the beginning of a
foot-and-mouth disease outbreak among Jordan’s livestock at the end of 2022, 1,478
head of cattle — about 1.6 percent of the Kingdom’s total 92,000 cows — have
become infected, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
اضافة اعلان
Within the framework of the ministry’s intensive
efforts to follow up on the outbreak, epidemiological investigation and
follow-up teams have visited the affected farms and are monitoring the
development of the epidemiological situation, collecting samples and sending
them for examination to livestock laboratories, the ministry said on Sunday.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, 56 farms
have officially reported infections, spreading to 1,478 out of the 14,456
head of cattle at these farms, Ammon News reported.
Under the National Plan for
Agriculture,
the ministry implemented a national campaign for immunization against foot-and-mouth
disease during the last quarter of 2022, vaccinating over 4 million head of
livestock, including sheep, goats, and cows.
The ministry has taken a number of measures
to reduce the chance of transmission, including raising awareness regarding the
application of biosecurity measures and suspending the import of straw and hay
from neighboring countries that have recorded cases of the disease.
The current situation in Jordan cannot be
officially classified as an outbreak based on global standards, the ministry
said, reassuring the public that there will be “no impact” on the supply or
price of milk, given the abundance of milk production, which more than covers
local market demand.
Infected fodderMinister of Agriculture
Khaled Al-Huneifat
said that the disease spread to Jordan through the import of fodder carrying
the virus from a neighboring Arab country, according to local media outlet.
The epidemic, which is affecting primarily
cattle, is endemic — limited to the Dulail area of Zarqa Governorate only, he
said.
The ministry is working on establishing an
operations room to follow up on the issue, which will be completed soon,
Huneifat said.
Furthermore, the ministry is planning additional
rounds of vaccinations for March and April, the minister noted.
‘Heavy losses’Meanwhile, Cooperative Society for Cattle
Owners and Milk Producers President Ali Ghabayen offered a less favorable
perspective on the disease’s spread in the Kingdom.
He told Jo24 that dozens of infections have
been recorded among cows at farms in Dulail and the nearby Halabat, with some
farms reaching a 100-percent rate of infection.
The virus, he added, has spread to some
Irbid farms as well to cover an area of 40 square kilometers.
“This means that all of Zarqa Governorate is considered an infected area,” he
said.
Foot-and-mouth disease in cattle leads to
dryness of the udder and high temperatures, as well as risk of blood clotting
and even death, the society president explained.
Ghabayen criticized the “inadequate” efforts
of the Ministry of Agriculture in taking samples, saying that vaccinations “have
failed to bring the desired results”, and questioned whether the virus currently
circulating is, infact, foot-and-mouth disease.
“The mortality rate is very high and the
losses are heavy,” he said. “Some farmers will have to leave the market with
losses that impede their ability to continue.”
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