Global foot-and-mouth disease control policy and its effects on Botswana’s people and wildlife
by Wisse van Engelen
Last week the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (EuFMD) celebrated its 70th anniversary. Launched on the 12th of June 1954, the EuFMD had as its mission “to promote national and international action with respect to control measures against foot-and-mouth disease in Europe” and coordinated mass vaccination campaigns. In the four decades since its launch, the EuFMD managed to eradicate the disease on the continent and stopped vaccination. Since then, the activity of the EuFMD has shifted to address the risks of infection through import. After all, now that the herds on the continent were not vaccinated, they were vulnerable to infection. But what does this shifting focus on import entail for disease control in the exporting countries? And how are the exporting countries’ efforts supported and/or (mis)guided by global FMD control policy? The below video offers a critical look from Botswana.
