The 7th World Rabbit Congress is to be held in Valencia (Spain). It is being organized by ASESCU, the Spanish branch of the World Rabbit Science Association (WRSA). The main sessions will be based on papers received on the following topics: nutrition and digestive physiology; reproduction and reproductive physiology; general physiology; genetics and selection; pathology and profilaxis; growth and meat quality; biotechnology; ethology and welfare; wool and fur production; management and economy; rabbit production in different countries; and utilization of the rabbit as a laboratory animal.
A main session is being prepared in collaboration with FAO on the subject of using rabbit and cuy as a meat source for developing countries. This session will be focused on sustainable production systems, mainly for rural areas, and all contributions related to this subject (food sources, management, pathology, small farm design, etc.) are welcome.
In addition, interested researchers are invited to submit proposed topics for round tables and workshops to the Organizing Committee (Prof. A. Blasco), or to the Network on Rabbit Science (CARROLL).
The official languages of WRSA are English, French, Italian and Spanish, and presentations should be given in one of these languages. Simultaneous translation will be provided for all the main sessions. Round tables and workshops will be held in English only.
A hard copy of the proceedings will be provided on arrival at the Congress. A CD-ROM containing the proceedings of this and all the former world congresses on cuniculture will be included in the documentation of the Congress.
For further information, contact:
Internet: http://etsia.upv.es/7WRC
E-mail: [email protected]
This three-month training programme will provide participants with practice-oriented knowledge and skills in the field of supply and preparation of feed for farm animals. The programme is aimed at those working in the small and medium-sized feed industry and/or related activities.
The course includes theoretical and practical subjects, traineeship, workshops, excursions, etc. Subjects refer to technological, nutritional, organizational and economic aspects of feeding. Detailed information can be obtained from:
IPC Livestock Barneveld College
Head, Department of International Studies and Cooperation Programmes
PO Box 64, 3770 AB Barneveld the Netherlands.
Tel.: +31-342-414881
Fax: +31-342-492813
E-mail: [email protected]
The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with FAO and the Office international des épizooties (OIE), has established a Study Group on Future Trends in Veterinary Public Health. Working papers and other contributions were discussed during an electronic conference which ran from
1 December 1998 to end of January 1999. Subsequently, the Group met from 1 to 5 March 1999 at the WHO/FAO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Veterinary Epidemiology and Management in Teramo, Italy. Here it reviewed the current status of veterinary public health (VPH), assessed the needs of member countries and prepared draft guidelines to respond to these needs. The definition of VPH was reviewed and a draft policy paper was prepared for presentation to the governing bodies of WHO.
Last May, FAO, WHO and the Danish Centre for Experimental Parasitology (a WHO/FAO Collaborating Centre on Emerging and other Parasitic Zoonoses) held a strategic planning meeting for the preparation of a Plan of Action for the Control of Selected Emerging Parasitic Zoonoses at the Danish Centre for Experimental Parasitology in Copenhagen. For further information, contact:
Jorgen W. Hansen, Senior Officer (Parasitology)
FAO Animal Production and Health Division, Animal Health Service
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel.: (+39) 06 57054159
Fax: (+39) 06 57055749
In the Nigerian state of Benue, pigs are valuable animals. Pork is the choice meat for weddings, funerals and other major social occasions, and pigs are an essential item in a respectable dowry. Extended family groups commonly keep large herds of more than 100 pigs. For the rural poor, pigs provide the cash for medical bills, school fees, taxes and fertilizer purchases.
But now pig-keepers in Benue - home to more than 20 percent of Nigeria's pigs - are watching helplessly as African swine fever (ASF) sweeps through their herds. By the end of September 1998, more than 60 000 pigs had died of the disease in Benue, while more than 2 000 pig farms with a total of nearly 80 000 pigs were reported to be affected by the epidemic.
ASF is a highly resistant virus and a potentially devastating disease. Very few pigs survive infection and those that do can be contagious. There is no vaccine. ASF can only be contained by quarantining affected herds, slaughtering sick and recovered pigs and isolating herds at risk.
ASF is endemically present in wild pigs in southern and eastern Africa. In West Africa, it has been spreading steadily over the last few years, devastating the domestic pig population and having a severe impact on both indigenous and introduced breeds.
Following the introduction of the disease into Côte d'Ivoire in 1996, 22 000 pigs died of ASF, and a further 100 000 were slaughtered in the drive to eradicate the disease. FAO supported the government through a Technical Cooperation Project (TCP) and, in April 1997, the disease was reported to have been contained. Benin and Togo were also infected and related TCPs were started in 1997 and 1998, respectively.
In Cape Verde, FAO has established that the recent ASF epidemic is currently limited to two islands - Maio and Santiago. A TCP project was approved in April. The disease has been endemically present in at least part of the Cape Verde archipelago since 1985. Santiago Island now has five or six infected zones.
In Nigeria, ASF was first detected in the southwestern states of Lagos and Ogun and is thought to have entered the country through cross-border contacts with Benin. A TCP was set up in April 1998 to support the government in its drive to raise public awareness about the disease and stamp it out.
A visiting scientist and veterinary expert working with the FAO EMPRES group travelled to Nigeria in November 1998 and found that ASF has now spread far beyond the states of Lagos and Ogun. In a workshop with national veterinary authorities, it was reported that nine states are now infected. The workshop expressed concern about "the serious threat posed by the disease to the food security in general and especially that of the rural low-income population in the country".
In Lagos State, the worst affected are people in the intensive pig production areas, whereas in the other states of Nigeria it is the small farmers, especially women, who have fallen victim.
The veterinary expert stressed that the ASF epidemic in Nigeria - and in Benue State in particular, where pigs are very important to low-income families - is having a devastating effect on women heads of household. "Most of the people who look after pigs are women, many of whom are breadwinners for their families. Payment of school fees is one of the first things to suffer," he said.
According to the scientist, one of the main driving forces behind the spread of ASF when control measures are implemented is compulsory slaughtering of infected animals and animals at risk, without any compensation being paid to the owners.
The threat of losing their animals with no recompense, drives pig-keepers to do two things to cut their losses, the expert explained. If possible, they will move their animals away from the infected areas, possibly to relatives in neighbouring states or countries. "In this part of Africa, socio-cultural ties exist regardless of national boundaries," the expert reported, "so it is relatively easy to move animals over the border to kinsfolk. Infected animals moved in this way spread the disease."
If they fail to avoid slaughter, pig-keepers may try to sell or give away smoked meat from slaughtered animals - often, again, to distant relatives. Meat from infected animals, even if smoked, is infectious and any offal consumed by scavenging pigs will pass on the disease. Fortunately, ASF does not affect human beings.
The recent workshop cautioned that "slaughter without adequate compensation will aggravate the already devastating situation by aiding the further spread of the disease through the mass movement of live pigs and pig products." It recommended that "compensation of pig farmers should preferably be paid in kind to enable them to restock".
In the meantime, sincere efforts are being made at the highest government level in Nigeria to obtain assistance from government sources, the National Petroleum Trust Fund and the Family Economic Enhancement Programme, either in kind or in cash, to enable affected farmers to restart. For further information, contact:
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: www.fao.org/NEWS/1998/981201-e.htm
The new Programme Against African Trypanosomiasis (PAAT) is an international alliance combining the forces of FAO, WHO, IAEA and OAU/IBAR. By treating the tsetse/trypanosomiasis problem as an integral part of development and poverty alleviation, the goal of PAAT is to achieve positive and lasting results in tryps-affected areas.
Considerable progress has been achieved over the last year, in particular with the establishment of the PAAT Information System (PAAT-IS), which is being coordi-nated from FAO by a visiting scientist seconded from the Natural Resources Institute (United Kingdom), University of Greenwich. Supported with funds from the Department For International Development (United Kingdom) and FAO, several components of PAAT-IS are now functional, notably the PAAT Web site and the PAAT-List e-mail forum. The core of PAAT-IS consists of a customized Geographical Information System (GIS) linked to a georeferenced tsetse and trypanosomiasis bibliography and a country-level resource inventory. This exciting advancement, developed by the Oxfordbased Environmental Research Group Oxford Ltd (ERGO) and the Trypanosomiasis and Land-use in Africa (TALA) research group, is currently undergoing testing before a CD-ROM version is released later this year. The significantly improved data layers and modelling capabilities have already contributed towards the identification of priority control areas, an important stage in the overall PAAT Plan of Action.
The PAAT Web site represents a significant landmark in the development of PAAT and its commitment to enhancing coordination and communication among the international community concerned with the control of African trypanosomiasis. From within this well-designed Web site, information is provided on the work of the PAAT Programme with meeting reports, contact details of members and the Programme Memorandum. After approval, PAAT position papers on several key issues are to be published in a new PAAT Technical and Scientific Series.
In addition to electronic copies of these position papers, comments received during the approval process can easily be retrieved from the Web site. Visitors can also catch up on messages released on the increasingly popular PAAT-List e-mail forum by browsing the informative monthly archives. On-line training facilities include the FAO Training Manuals for Tsetse Control Personnel in electronic form and details of similar resources from other institutes. The georeferenced bibliography linked to the GIS component contains more than 6 000 records (with abstracts where applicable) and a search engine facility for interrogating this database will shortly be available on-line. Back issues of the Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Information Quarterly (TTIQ) are also currently available for download.
For further information, please contact [email protected] or visit the PAAT Internet site at:
www.fao.org/WAICENT/Faoinfo/Agricult/AGA/AGAH/PD/Paat_l/index.htm
Since 1998, a multidisciplinary team of experts from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, Nepal, has been carrying out a state-of-the-art review of mixed crop-livestock farming systems under high land and human population pressure in the medium-altitude areas of the Himalayas. The overall goal of this FAO-sponsored study is to develop a draft strategy for the sustainable management of livestock in such high-pressure areas. Over the last decade, considerable changes have taken place in livestock population structure and management in relation to farming systems and natural resources. However, little is known at present about how these transitions have affected the sustainable livestock production and product supply systems.
The aim of the study is to identify specific problems and opportunities related to sustainable management of the livestock
sector in the high-pressure areas of the Himalayas. The following are some of the issues that will be reviewed:
Further studies of this kind are being carried out for the highlands of East Africa and the Andean regions of Latin America. In December 1999 a global round table will be held in Kathmandu, Nepal, to assess the results of the three regional studies and to propose a series of plans of action which could be adopted by the various stakeholders for further development of livestock in high-pressure mountainous areas.
In the coming months FAO will be publishing, in Spanish, a training manual on the donkey as a work animal and it is hoped that funds will be found to publish it in English and French also. If published in an A4 format, it will be approximately 135 pages long. The manual will follow the same approach used in the 1994 publication entitled Draught Animal Power Manual - A training manual for field workers.
The immediate beneficiaries of the eventual training courses will be rural communities participating in projects aimed at a better use of local resources and at a better organization of local groups. Technical messages are presented in short modules, each accompanied by an evaluation sheet in order to encourage individual participation in assessing the clarity and effectiveness of the message. In addition, participants should also evaluate the potential for immediate use of these messages and as well as the likelihood of any beneficial impact deriving from them.
The manual is presented in four sections:
· Animal husbandry and livestock management practices - 23 modules;
· Work animal harnesses: alternatives and options - 7 modules;
· Simple machines: farm equipment, implements and tools - 6 modules;
· Training work animals: basic two-way communication, packing, pulling/draught,
riding - 3 modules.
Much effort and time has been devoted to producing training manuals of this kind, and the only prediction that can safely be made is that, in spite of all this hard work, these manuals must be modified and updated, possibly simplified, corrected and generally improved if they are to provide the best service to each of the potential beneficiaries. FAO repeatedly reminds all its field partners using these manuals to change the modules in order to meet their own needs. FAO manuals should be seen as templates designed to help users elaborate their own training documents. This is one of the most valuable purposes of a manual.
An Internet link for this manual will also be available on the FAO Animal Production and Health Division (AGA)
Internet site:
www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/Agricult/AGA/Welcome.htm
Brucellosis is one of the most important zoonoses affecting human welfare and livestock health worldwide. The disease is caused by bacteria of the genus Brucella, comprising different species that vary in their affinity and virulence to several hosts. Control of the disease requires a basic understanding of the pathogenesis as well as the prophylaxis and surveillance methods available for its control or eradication.
FAO and WHO have long been jointly active in planning and developing mutual international collaboration programmes and activities, with the common objective of improving human and animal welfare. BruNet is a new initiative being implemented by the two organizations. It provides state-of-the-art knowledge of the disease and reports regularly on its geographical distribution and economic importance as well as on efforts to limit its impact worldwide. Focus will be placed on infection with Brucella melitensis, which is a field in which much work remains to be done, especially in Mediterranean countries. The contribution made by each expert covers a specific scientific topic of the disease collected under the informative section of BruNet. The Forum, the second component of BruNet, provides a podium for experts to discuss ongoing and future concerns about the disease - for example Brucella taxonomy and classification; the development and improvement of Brucella vaccines; and discussions on surveillance methods and diagnosis. The results of these discussions will be updated in the informative component of the Web site.
Readers are encouraged to use BruNet at their own convenience and subsequently consult the experts listed below on specific problems. Questions that are judged to be important will be forwarded to the Forum for a comprehensive evaluation. The results will then be published as part of the updated material. Other queries will be discussed among the corresponding persons until they have been satisfactorily answered. We hope that, by using electronic communication, local efforts to control or eradicate brucellosis will be facilitated. We also hope that BruNet will assist the international community in coordinating and unifying the different control, diagnosis and surveillance methods. The Forum will be monitored by Dr M. Banai in collaboration with Prof. A. Benkirane, Animal Health Officer, Bacteriology, at FAO Headquarters, Rome; and Dr O. Cosivi from WHO, Geneva. Below are the contact details of the three Internet site moderators:
Dr Menachem Banai (coordinator)
National Brucellosis Reference Laboratory
OIE Brucellosis Reference Laboratory Department of Bacteriology
Kimron Veterinary Institute
PO Box 12, Bet-Dagan 50250, Israel
E-mail: [email protected];
Tel.: (+972 3) 9681698;
Fax: (+972 3) 9681753.
Prof. Abdelali Benkirane (FAO
Representative)
Animal Health Officer (Bacteriology)
Animal Production and Health Division Animal Health Service (Room C535)
FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel.: (+39) 06 57052681
Fax: (+39) 06 57055749
Dr Ottorino Cosivi (WHO Representative)
Division of Emergency and Other Commu-nicable Diseases, Disease Surveillance and Control
WHO
Avenue Appia, 20
CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel.: (+41 22) 7912531
Fax: (+41 22) 7914893
For more information, please contact:
Prof. Abdelali Benkirane (see details above).
The Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme (GREP) Technical Consultation and EMPRES Expert Consultation, held in Rome in September/October 1998, reviewed the progress made in rinderpest eradication. It endorsed the view of the GREP Secretariat that a more vigorous approach is required if global freedom is to be attained by the year 2010. Experts unanimously endorsed the need for an intensified GREP to complement the existing activities and focus on clarifying any remaining areas of uncertainty and on elimination of the last remaining foci of persisting infection in the shortest possible time.
GREP commenced in the 1980s with mass immunization campaigns throughout the world which extended to a point where the remaining foci of endemicity are few, distinct and isolated. The internationally agreed procedure to verify eradication (the OIE Pathway) commences with the cessation of rinderpest vaccination once a country is satisfied that it has experienced no clinical rinderpest disease for two years. Many countries that were affected in the 1980s no longer experience rinderpest, have either ceased, or intend to cease, vaccination and have entered on the OIE Pathway or are expected to do so in the near future. For example, for Africa, the Pan-African Rinderpest Campaign (PARC) strategy is for all countries to declare provisional freedom from rinderpest for either the whole country or for zones of countries in which foci of infection persist.
Similarly for Asia, all countries east of Pakistan are being advised to cease vaccination and embark on the OIE Pathway, as India and Bhutan have already done, and several countries in the Near East are also ceasing vaccination. As a result, most of the world's cattle and buffalo populations will soon become completely susceptible to rinderpest.
This period of increasing vulnerability is unavoidable if global eradication is to be achieved, and the transition period to final eradication requires careful management. Accordingly, the EMPRES Expert Consulta-tion of October 1998 advised that the continuing presence of a few foci of rinderpest in parts of Africa, West and South Asia cannot be regarded simply as matters of national or local concern. Such foci now pose a grave risk to the world cattle population and their prompt and assured elimination calls for a concerted international action involving national governments, the donor community, non-governmental organizations and the international community. Appropriate financial and other supportive commitments are now sought for the single objective of eliminating the residual foci of rinderpest in the world within the next five years.
Preparation of national management plans for farm animal genetic resources is a key element in the FAO Global Strategy, as the management of a country's animal genetic resources requires the participation of farmers and breeders, policy-makers, local and indigenous communities and other stakeholders. To assist countries in preparing their national strategies and action plans, FAO has produced an umbrella document, referred to as the Primary Guidelines, in conjunction with Secondary Guidelines, referring to each technical area of the Global Strategy.
The Guidelines are available free from the Animal Genetic Resources Group, Animal Production and Health Division, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. They can also be accessed and downloaded from DAD-IS online http://www.fao.org/
dad-is
FAO is currently helping Mediterranean countries to set up a network to promote rabbit breeding for food security, income purposes, diversification of livestock and better use of feed resources.
The network, known as the International Observatory on Rabbit Breeding in Mediterranean Countries, held its first successful meeting on 18 and 19 March 1999 in FAO headquarters in Rome, with delegates from 14 countries and the support of specialized organizations, such as the World Rabbit Science Association and the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies, led by the Associazione Nazionale Coniglicoltori Italiani (the Italian rabbit-breeding society) and the Italian Ministry for Rural Politics. The meeting was coordinated by Dr René Branckaert, Animal Production Officer, FAO.
The network will provide governments and producers with the information needed for planning rabbit output in the context of total livestock production. It will also promote training activities, elaborate specific programmes for rabbit production, processing and marketing and formulate technical cooperation projects for funding by bilateral, multilateral, non-governmental organizations and the private sector. More than half the countries that participated are in the Arab world and include Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia.
Rabbits have significant potential to improve food security. They are highly productive and constitute a cheap source of protein. A female rabbit can produce up to 80 kg of meat per year, i.e. 2 900 to 3 000 percent of its own weight in meat, according to experts.
For several reasons, rabbits are unique among small animals for food and commerce. They are adapted for both industrial and backyard production and for different environments. Being herbivores, they do not compete with humans for their food. They are easy to transport and market for food, fur and raw skin for garments and gloves.
Backyard rabbit raising generates additional income for small farmers and upgrades the diet of poor rural and urban households. Investment and labour costs are low and rabbits can be cared for by the most vulnerable family members. "Rabbits fit well in household production and can be looked after by women farmers," says FAO expert René Branckaert.
Rabbit meat consumption is a secular custom in the Mediterranean area. It goes back to 1000 bc when the Phoenicians are said to have discovered wild rabbits in North Africa and Spain and the Romans spread them throughout their empire. In France, consumption of rabbit meat became the sole right of the lord of the manor.
In Europe, rabbit breeding began in the sixteenth century and the small prolific animal was introduced to Australia and New Zealand through colonial expansion. Among European Mediterranean countries, Malta holds the highest per caput consumption, with 8.89 kg/year, followed by Italy (5.71 kg/year), Cyprus (4.37 kg/year) and France (2.76 kg/year). Naples, in the south of Italy, is said to be the world's biggest consumer of rabbit meat, at 15 kg per caput/year.
Among Arab countries, Egypt ranks as number one in rabbit consumption, at 1.5 kg per caput/year. Information on rabbit consumption in the Arab world is not widely available and the Observatory can be expected to improve the situation by systematically collecting data on rabbit production and consumption.
Global rabbit production is currently estimated to be 957 000 tonnes. The biggest producer is China (with some 300 000 tonnes/year), followed by Italy (210 000 tonnes) and Spain (110 000 tonnes).
In developing countries, rabbits may emerge as one low-cost answer to the problems of hunger, undernourishment and rural poverty. "Backyard rabbitries are the perfect answer to today's demand for sustainable development projects," says René Branckaert.
There are, however, several constraints to widescale rabbit production, including a lack of training in rabbit breeding and the problem of animal epidemics that can have devastating effects. However, social, cultural and religious bans are few and do not prohibit rabbit production development in most parts of the Mediterranean region.
For further information, please contact:
René Branckaert
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel.: (+39) 06 57054105
or
Dr Charles Dago Dadie
Associazione Nazionale Coniglicoltura Italiana (ANCI)
E-mail: [email protected];
Tel.: (+39) 06 86328574.
A widespread outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) type O, in North Africa began in February 1999. The first cases were reported in Algeria on 20 February 1999, where the disease spread quickly from the east to the west of the country. Isolated outbreaks also occurred in Tunisia and Morocco. Information concerning the disease outbreak circulated quickly thanks to RADISCON (Regional Animal Disease Surveillance and Control Network for North Africa, the Middle East and the Arab Peninsula), a disease information system implemented by FAO in the region.
To help affected countries in their battle against the disease, FAO's EMPRES programme, RADISCON and the European Commission for the Control of FMD have coordinated their efforts, also in collaboration with the World Reference Laboratory (WRL). A meeting, organized by FAO on 9 March at the subregional office for North Africa in Tunis, acknowledged that a regional approach was the most appropriate way to respond to the problem and that small ruminants needed to be included in the vaccination campaign to stop the spread of the disease. This meeting gathered directors of the veterinary services of each country and representatives of FAO, OIE, the EC and the World Reference Laboratory for FMD (based in Pirbright, United Kingdom).
Since the beginning of the epizootic and up to 20 March 1999, 164 farms and 143 communes out of 1 541 have been affected by the disease (1 356 animals clinically affected with a total of 47 deaths). Most of the outbreaks have occurred on small family farms with two to three head of cattle, and almost all of the animals affected have been cattle, with the exception of some sheep and goats that presented clinical signs in the latest cases reported on 4 April.
The first outbreak occurred in the Governorate of Grand Alger on 20 and 21 February 1999. The cases reported affected cattle that had been acquired on 17 February in a market at the El-Harrach transit centre. This market turned out to be the focal point for the future dissemination of the disease, since between 23 and 26 February all the cattle acquired there showed clinical signs of FMD. Three broad areas were eventually affected: the central, eastern and western wilayates or districts (Map 1).
Information from WRL, based on genetic characterization, indicates that the Algerian strain is very close to strains isolated in Côte d'Ivoire in 1999 and in Ghana in 1993. This supports the view that the current virus is related to the one that has been responsible for FMD episodes in parts of West Africa for the last six years.
The recent interception of zebu cattle in southern Algeria may support the hypothesis that this outbreak is the first recorded example of a major viral epizootic disease crossing the Sahara, although these animals did not present clinical signs of FMD, as was also the case with animals on unvaccinated dairy farms in the same region.
The number of new outbreaks peaked in the second week of the epizootic between 25 February and 3 March. From then on, the number of new outbreaks started to diminish as a result of the control measures. The most recent outbreaks have been in herds that had not been vaccinated.
The control measures used were the slaughter and destruction of the carcasses of affected animals, slaughter of in-contact animals, the closure of animal markets, the banning of animal movements and a mass vaccination campaign. All available media were used to sensitize farmers and to appeal to them to participate in the prevention programme.
FMD was first suspected on 25 February 1999 in the town of Oujda, near the border of Algeria. To date, ten farms have been affected in three locations, involving only cattle (Map 2).
Up to 14 March, a total of eight outbreaks occurred in premises belonging to butchers/fatteners within 1 km of the municipal abattoir in Oujda. The introduction of the FMD virus from Algeria occurred most probably through feedlot cattle smuggling. In total, 14 animals displayed symptoms of FMD and were slaughtered with their carcasses destroyed. The 113 in-contact animals were slaughtered. Other measures taken at the time of the Oujda outbreaks were the restriction of animal movements, closing of livestock markets, disinfection of premises, incineration of manure, immediate destruction of all susceptible animals illegally introduced and a vaccination campaign targeted at the frontier provinces with Algeria and a buffer zone consisting of certain neighbouring provinces.
However, two new outbreaks occurred outside the vaccination zones:
· On 31 March, in the Province of Khouribga, all seven bovines of a stockbreeder
showed clinical signs of FMD and were destroyed.
· On 3 April, in the Province of Béni Mellal, one animal was affected and
destroyed.
As a result, the current vaccination campaign has been extended to cover the entire country. As of 9 March 1999, 550 000 doses of vaccine have been used, mostly in the vaccination zones of the north and east of the country. Veterinarians in both the private and public sectors were mobilized for the full campaign, which had a completion date of 10 May. A national serological survey is planned to monitor the effectiveness of the campaign, and a booster vaccination for young cattle is planned for one month after the primary vaccination. Cattle had been vaccinated in Morocco up to the end of 1997.
Two outbreaks have been reported in Tunisia (Map 3), with both cattle and sheep affected. The affected cattle presented classical symptoms and lesions of FMD whereas, among the sheep affected, only discrete lameness was observed in certain animals.
The first case was reported on 1 March in Grombalia. It affected a mixed herd belonging to a meat producer but only cattle were clinically affected, with 22 of the 28 animals presenting clinical signs. All the animals, both cattle and sheep, were slaughtered. Booster ring vaccination began in March, as the last vaccination campaign in the region took place between 15 September 1998 and 14 January 1999.
The second outbreak was reported on 11 March, 5 km from the Algerian border, in Ghardimaou. Classic signs of FMD were observed in one heifer and in the sheep. All the animals were slaughtered. The animals had not been vaccinated in the 1998 campaign (October-December). Cattle and small ruminants had been regularly vaccinated in Tunisia until this current outbreak.
