Jordan closes livestock barns after foot-and-mouth disease detected

Amman, Feb 6 (IANS) Jordan has announced the closure of all livestock barns in the country for 14 days after detecting a new strain of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), local media reported.

Jordan's Ministry of Agriculture also decided on Sunday to temporarily suspend imports of rough fodder from Iraq after the spread of the disease, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the state-run Al Mamlaka TV.

The ministry said most registered cases of FMD in the Al Dhuleil area to the north of Zarqa governorate were infections of a new strain of the disease.

The ministry said it took several precautionary measures and contacted the ministries and local administration to move ahead with veterinary quarantine, sanitization and immunization.

The ministry also launched a campaign to immunize livestock and establish veterinary hospitals.

Ali Ghabayen, president of the Al Dhuleil Dairy Cattle Association, said 90 percent of cows and calves on farms in the Al Dhuleil area are infected with the new strain of FMD, and 150 cows and calves have died of FMD in Al Dhuleil.

The ministry said that it is contacting companies that manufacture veterinary vaccines against the new strain.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Laith Al Hajj, head of the Cow Breeders Society, said the losses of the new strain have so far reached around 25 million Jordanian dinars ($35.24 million).