Kongola Vet Gate (Foot & Mouth Control)

IN SOUTHERN AFRICA FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE IS CONTROLLED BY restricting the movement of animals by means of veterinary fences; and, by banning imports of raw meat and animal products like unpasteurised milk and cheese of cloven-hoofed animals..

Veterinary cordon fences are physical fences demarcating control zones in accordance with the guidelines of the International Animal Health Authority. These fences are referred to as vet fences and they are indicated with red lines on T4A’s maps. The movement of raw meat and animal products, including unpasteurised milk, are allowed into but not out of an area classified as an infected zone.

Often visitors feel that their vacuum packed or deep frozen meat poses a minimal disease risk, but unfortunately the logistics of having every possible permutation of the rules in a form that can be understood by the vet fence guards, is quite impossible. Therefore you should rather not try to take raw meat in any form past a vet fence checkpoint.

In Namibia vet fence restrictions prevent you from moving meat from north to south and east to west, as foot-and- mouth disease occur in the northern parts of the country. Meat may be moved from the south to the north, and from the west to the east past the veterinary fences. Palmwag is the only exception to this rule.

The vast majority of veterinary fences and the gates allowing access are static, therefore some checkpoints have been in operation at the same places for years. However, temporary veterinary gates are erected when it is possible to contain a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak within a smaller area, thus preventing it from spreading through the entire sector. The temporary gates operate similar to police road blocks; sometimes they are in operation, but more often not. It all depends on the veterinary health in the area at a specific point in time.

At some of these fences you may be asked to drive your vehicle through a dip filled with a disinfecting solution and you and your passengers will also have to exit the vehicle and walk on a mat impregnated with the solution to dis- infect your shoes (the ones you are wearing plus extras) as the disease is also carried by the urine and faeces of infected animals.

Because of vet fences you may not:
Take meat from Katima Mulilo to Rundu.
Take meat from Rundu to Grootfontein.
Take meat from Palmwag south into Damaraland.
Take meat west past the vet fence between Tsumkwe and the main Rundu/Grootfontein road.
Take meat from Etosha to the south. You can, how- ever, take meat into Etosha coming from the south, but all the meat must be consumed before you return south.

If you need to travel in the ‘right’ direction past vet fences with meat, you should declare the meat and show your till slip indicating where you bought the meat. The official is then supposed to issue you with a permit. However, because of the human factor this system doesn’t always work out well. If you are polite and courteous to the officials at these vet check points you will very seldom encounter any problems.

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