Colombia: actions for recovering the foot-and-mouth disease free status with vaccination in 2017

The containment area will be established for a maximum of a year and will then be incorporated to the rest of the country as a foot-and-mouth disease free area. The containment area established by the ICA includes 238 municipalities in the departments of Arauca, Boyacá, Casanare and Cundinamarca; therefore

• All the 7 municipalities in the department of Arauca.
• 118 municipalities out of the 123 that form Boyacá, except Puerto Boyacá, Covarachía, Santana, Chitaraque and San José de Pare.
• 2 of the 19 municipalities of Casanare. Inside the containment area we find the municipalities of La Salina and Sácama.
• 111 of the 117 municipalities of Cundinamarca, except Puerto Salgar, Medina, Paratebueno, 33 paths in Yacopí, 74 paths in Caparrapí and 31 paths in Guaduas.

The containment area includes 2,664,143 cattle on 124,146 farms; 7,293 buffaloes; 699,446 pigs on 21,609 farms; 57,579 goats and 161,854 sheep.

“With the definition of the containment area, its establishment and management will help us to recover the foot-and-mouth disease free status with vaccination for the rest of the country in November. With an intense work in the containment area, we will be able to recover it in a year, at the most, so all the country recovers the health status that was lost”, said Mr Luis Humberto Martínez Lacouture, national manager of the ICA, who added that “In November, when we recover the foot-and-mouth disease free country status, we will go on with the international trade of carcasses and live animals to countries with which we have health agreements for this kind of trade.”

Apart from establishing the affected territory, in the containment area the following measures shall be implemented for the 238 municipalities included in it:

• The moving of animals can be carried out freely within the containment area with the corresponding health documents for the internal moving of animals.
• Gatherings, expositions and fairs of cattle, buffaloes, pigs, sheep and goats are forbidden.
• The exit of live animals from this area is forbidden.
• The slaughtering of animals can only be carried out in processing plants or abattoirs within the containment area.
• Meat and meat products, as well as milk and dairy products that exit the area shall be submitted to special processes that guarantee the destruction of the foot-and-mouth disease virus.
• More than 60 control posts shall be established in this area.