LatinNews Daily - 30 October 2018

* Venezuela’s agriculture minister, Wilmar Castro Soteldo, has announced that Venezuela will suspend all trade of animals and animal products and sub-products with Colombia due to an “imminent epidemiological risk” after a strain of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) was found in the Colombian municipality of Maicao, in the northern border department of La Guajira. Castro Soteldo has said that Venezuela will increase epidemiological surveillance at the border and undertake the immunization of bovine herds in the country, and he warned against the entrance into Venezuela of meat or lactose products from Colombia. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans cross the border into Colombia daily, many to supply themselves with basic foodstuffs. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) suspended Colombia’s FMD-free status last 17 September. The outbreak in Maicao is the third case of FMD recorded near the border with Venezuela since September, and the Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA) has said that it will focus on vaccinating and re-vaccinating herds in the frontier departments.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 161 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial