Morocco takes measures against Foot-and-Mouth disease

Morocco has taken a series of measures to prevent the entry of animals infected with the foot-and-mouth disease in Moroccan ports and airports, an official source said Thursday.

Living animals from countries where the epidemic rages on will be denied entry to Morocco while all animal products, with the exception of milk and dairy products, will be submitted to a treatment, says a statement of the ministry of agriculture, rural development, water and forests.

Vehicles coming from the United Kingdom and France will be disinfected.

The statement says imports of vegetal products and animal feed from contaminated countries is not forbidden but submitted to an authorization by the health services of these countries, while grains and animal vegetal feed are not considered as sources of contamination. In airports and ports, passengers coming from contamination countries will be called to abstain from bringing food likely to contain the virus.

Regarding internal measures, the source said all persons involved in stockbreeding, mainly veterinarians, were urged to consolidate health control of animals and promote awareness of stock breeders on the foot and mouth disease.

He also announced that between January 2 and March 2, 80% of the bovine stock was immunized against the foot-and-mouth disease.

The statement underlined that Morocco remains a disease-free country since April 1999 and that regular massive immunization has covered 2,500,000 animals.