Africa-Press – Lesotho. Preparations to establish Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Multi-Sectoral Task Team are at an advanced stage as stakeholders earlier convended to consult and deliberate on the matter.
This was said by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition Chief Information Officer Mr. Lereko Masupha in an interview with the Agency.
Mr. Masupha said the FMD Multi-Sectoral Task Team will be established as the strategic government initiative to combat FMD, which is reported to be increasing in some neighbouring countries and pose a threat to Lesotho due to her geographical location, trade and cross border movement amongst others.
The Director General in the Ministry of Agriculture Dr. Relebohile Lepheana earlier said that Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) prevention goes beyond veterinary services and requires border control, security, trade regulations and community leadership thus they have proposed that the FMD Multi-Sectoral Task Team should be Chaired by the Ministry of Agriculture and members should be drawn from key enforcement, trade, disaster and finance institutions.
” The proposed membership includes the Ministry of Agriculture as Chair. Ministry of Defence and National Security; Local Government, Chieftainship, Home Affairs and Police; Trade and Industry; Disaster Management Authority (DMA) ; Finance and Development Planning, Farmers Associations and Border Control Agencies” she mentioned.
She said that the role of the Ministry of Agriculture will be to provide technical leadership on animal health and FMD control, serve as secretariet and coordinator of the task team as well as to coordinate surveillance, diagnostics, stamping out and vaccination planning.
She added that security and border agencies will provide enforcement of animal movement controls, strengthen border surveillance and patrols as well as to assist in rapid response during outbreaks or high-risk situations.
She stated that DMA and Finance will coordinate emergency preparedness and response logistics as well as to facilitate mobilisation of resources for preparedness and response.
She further disclosed that the task team is expected to strengthen border and internal surveillance as well as to improve inter-agency coordination and communication amongst others.
Meanwhile the country has since banned the importation of livestock and unprocessed meat from South Africa and traders are importing from Namibia and Botswana.
