KUWAIT: The Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR), in coordination with Kuwait Environmental Police, has taken all necessary precautions to prevent spread of the foot-and-mouth disease, PAAAFR Director General Faisal Al-Hasawi affirmed yesterday.

"The health situation is stable; proportion of infections among the herds has dropped," Hasawi said, adding that the Kuwait Environmental Police (KEP) have enforced a quarantine at Al-Sulaibiah farms. The Environmental Police, along with the Public Security, is staging patrols all over Al-Sulaibiah to ensure effectiveness of the quarantine, preventing entry or exist of cattle infected with the foot-and-mouth disease, he added. The patrols work round the clock and there are two fixed monitoring stations there, as well.

Tight quarantine

Hasawi indicated that the special government panel that groups representatives from PAAAFR, the Municipality and the KEP as well as the Union of Fresh Diary Producers (UFDP), is coordinating efforts to enforce the tight quarantine in the region, warning that violators would be penalized.

No infections have been registered in more than half of the farms there, and the "livestock wealth is sound and their products are free from diseases," said Hasawi who also called on all relevant authorities to cooperate with the farms. PAAAFR has diligently worked to cope with such outbreaks that happen yearly in the country, he added.

Hasawi re-affirmed that the dairy products "were sound and were not affected after a number of cows were infected with the foot-and-mouth disease, " re-noting that standard processing and enveloping are observed in the dairy products manufacturing. Explaining further, Hasawi said the disease had actually infected non-immunized calves that do not give milk.

Three times

Meanwhile, PAAAFR Director of Livestock Health, Dr Abdulrahman Al-Kanderi, said the department immunizes the cows in the country three times per year, with 28,000 shots each time. He also clarified that the infectious disease does not transmit to camels.

Furthermore, the foot-and-mouth disease "poses no hazard to human well-being," Hasawi explained, however he noted that only two cases were recorded in Kuwait over the past 50 years. And that the patients had recovered. The disease outbreak was first reported early this month among a number of cows. Farmers had been guided on how to prevent it from spreading.

Conserving wildlife

In other news, the Kuwait Environment Protection Society emphasized the importance of continuous productive cooperation with PAAAFR for protection of vegetation, wildlife and marine creatures. It also called for boosting cooperation in organizing cultural and awareness activities between both sides.

Secretary General of Kuwait Environment Protection Society (KEPS) Wejdan Al-Oqab said yesterday that a fresh visit by a PAAAFR's delegation to KEPS' headquarters tackled mutual cooperation, besides a host of issues namely overgrazing, grazing in prohibited areas, and their negative impact on wildlife, as well as developing and protecting wild plants in the country.

The two sides also agreed on allocating selected public gardens to develop and enrich their vegetation, besides discussing unjustified damage and tampering with plants and flowers in public gardens. Meanwhile, Hasawi said both KEPS and PAAAFRA share the same visions towards various environmental issues related to protection of Kuwait's natural resources. Hasawi applauded the mutual cooperation with KEPS and hailed the latter's distinguished work in the environmental field. - KUNA