Mouth and foot disease in the Arab states

The Saudi paper al-Iqtisadiyah said on Monday that a farm owner counted 420 "mouth and foot " disease cases among his cattle in al-Qatif province, in the eastern area of Saudi Arabia.

Another cow breeding farm owner in Seihat told the paper that 120 of the infected cows died in his farm since the emergence of this disease in his farm on the 6th of this Month, (March).

The farmer who asked not to be identified said that representatives from the ministry of agriculture made analysis on the died cows but the results have not appeared yet.

He expressed his hope that the ministry will help him to eliminate this disease before its spread among other 250 still unaffected cows.

In the United Arab Emirates the " Gulf News" paper said that more that 150 cows and geese were slaughtered in three farms in Abu Dhabi.

In Kuwait, an officials at the general commission for agricultural affairs and fisheries said in statements issued on Monday that Kuwait is Kuwait safe from all diseases affected livestock, stressing that a series of measures have been taken to immunize and prevent against the dissemination of any disease or virus in the country's livestock.

The director of the livestock health department at the commission Muhammad al-Muhanna said that Kuwait is completely safe from, in particular, the " Mad cow" and the foot and mouth diseases which are spread in, especially in Europe.