EU suspends imports of meat from Namibia over FMD fears

The largest market for Namibian beef, the European Union, announced Monday it had suspended imports after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which wreaked havoc in Europe 25 years ago.

Namibia announced last month its first outbreak of foot-and-mouth (FMD) in its primary commercial livestock zone in 60 years, prompting a nationwide ban on livestock movement and meat exports.

"The EU has decided to temporarily suspend the entry into its territory of fresh meat of cattle, sheep and goats...," the EU delegation announced.

The suspension included meat from relevant farmed and wild hooved animals, and certain processed meat products, it said in a statement.

Processed meat that had undergone "the most severe risk-mitigating treatment" remained eligible for entry, it said.

The EU is Namibia's largest beef market, accounting for more than 80 percent of beef exports.

Around 10 million kilogrammes of Namibian beef went to Europe annually, EU ambassador Ana Beatriz Martins said in an interview with Namibia's NMH media.

A quarter of 40,000 direct jobs involved in exports to Europe would be affected by the suspension, she said.

During the last major FMD outbreak in the EU in 2001, more than six million animals had to be culled, the delegation's statement said.

FMD causes fever and blisters near the hoof and in the mouth that prevent animals from feeding and sometimes leads to death.

The disease has struck several southern African countries, including Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Since the outbreak in southern Namibia was declared on September 22, it had spread to 11 farms, officials said.

The government's disease-control response included intensified surveillance, tracing and testing, movement controls, veterinary roadblocks and biosecurity measures, agriculture ministry spokesman Romeo Muyunda told AFP.