I have a wholesome beef herd, clean and without fat nor Mad Cow disease, but you don't allow my beef into your market. The Ugandan leader must have winced as he watched on TV the massive slaughter of millions of cattle, sheep and pigs in Great Britain as a crisis response to stop the spread of foot and mouth disease of hooved livestock. There have been at least half a dozen instances of foot and mouth disease outbreaks in East Africa since the disease hit Britain earlier this year, more than 30 years after the country's last outbreak, in 1967. The British government on its part, believes it is the only practical way to eradicate the disease from British herds. The highly contagious disease is endemic in many African nations but Africans barely notice the outbreaks, which are regularly controlled by quarantine restriction as well as a preventive programme of continuous vaccination in disease areas.
Vets say it is no more serious for animals than a bad cold for humans.
The head of Kenya Veterinary Vaccine Production Institute, Dr Joseph Kinyiri, asserted as much in a recent interview with a Western news agency. He suggested that rather than institute such drastic measures, the Europeans should learn to live with the disease as we do in Africa and institute regular control measures such as vaccinations. Some vaccinated animals remain contagious or can become sick again. The draconian measures instituted by the Britain governments to control foot and mouth have began to backfire, with millions of potential tourists to British scared off by the funeral pyres of more than a million animals destroyed so far. News reports also suggest the country is facing a sombre killer plague.