- "The virus is so contagious that
once an animal is infected, there is no escape for its companions in the
herd."
-
- BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) _ Hoof-and-mouth disease has crippled at least 1 million
sheep and cattle in Iraq and the lack of vaccines for the highly contagious
disease threatens the country's livestock, a U.N. official said Thursday.
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- The implications of the disease are catastrophic,
the official said: Farmers could be ruined, and meat and milk could become
even more scarce in a country where 8{ years of U.N. economic sanctions
have already made shortages commonplace.
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- At least 50,000 animals _ mostly lambs,
kids and calves _ have died from the viral disease, the official told The
Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
-
- In an earlier interview, the representative
of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Iraq, Amir Khalil, said
almost all of Iraq's 18 provinces have suffered outbreaks of the sickness,
known also as foot-and-mouth disease. ``We have to take it seriously. If
we don't contain it as soon as possible, it might become an epidemic,''
he said.
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- Because grazing herds wander across borders,
the danger extends beyond Iraq and into neighboring countries. The virus
also clings to clothes and farming equipment and can drift as far as 30
miles in the air.
-
- Hoof-and-mouth disease affects cloven-hoofed
animals. It eats away at the skin on tongues and lips and causes lesions
on feet. Infected animals are left unable to eat or walk, and they lose
weight and their ability to reproduce. Newborn animals that drink milk
from their infected mothers usually die. The disease is seldom transmitted
to humans.
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- The first U.N. official said the number
of infected animals is increasing daily and noted that the Iraq government
does not have the resources to stop the disease from spreading.
-
- The government has exhausted its reserve
of 250,000 vaccine dosages. Impoverished by the embargo imposed after Iraq's
1990 invasion of Kuwait, it has no money to buy more.
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- To prevent an epidemic, Iraq needs 3
million doses _ worth $3 million _ as an emergency quick-fix, plus an additional
12 million doses later, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The U.N. body is trying to organize delivery of at least 1 million vaccines.
-
- The outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease
is especially painful because Iraq had eradicated the virus years ago and
even produced its own vaccines for it.
-
- Iraq used to prepare the vaccines at
a laboratory in the capital, Baghdad, and export them for use on farms
throughout the Middle East. Iraqi farmers used to vaccinate animals three
times a year, one dose more than the required minimum.
-
- However, the vaccine laboratory was destroyed
in 1993 by the U.N. commission set up after the 1991 Persian Gulf War to
ensure that Iraq eliminates its weapons of mass destruction. The commission
feared the facility could be used to help manufacture biological or chemical
arms. Iraqis have not vaccinated their livestock against hoof-and-mouth
disease since then.
-
- The outbreak was first reported 1{ months
ago. Since then, 982,000 sheep and 50,000 cattle have been reported infected.
In addition, 48,000 newborn lambs and 3,000 calves have died, the official
said.
-
- But many of Iraq's remaining 7 million
farm animals are likely to become infected: The virus is so contagious
that once an animal is infected, there is no escape for its companions
in the herd.
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