CHITA, January 29. /ITAR-TASS/. Farm animals with symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease have been found in farm households in Zabaikalye region, Russia’s Siberia, the Russian agricultural watchdog’s regional department told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
A state of emergency was introduced in the village of Duroi, where an outbreak of the disease had been reported. “Samples from infected animals were taken and sent to the All-Russian Research Institute of Animal Health,” the watchdog said.
Zabaikalye is one of Russian regions, where outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease have been repeatedly registered over the past years. In September-November 2013, quarantine was imposed in five settlements of the region over the spread of foot-and-mouth disease among cattle.
Then the virus was supposedly brought from China. “The results of the foot-and-mouth virus genotyping in China’s provinces, Qinghai and Guangdong, proved that the virus is 99 percent identical to the disease that later affected farm animals in Zabaikalye,” the watchdog said. “This fact confirms that the disease had been brought to the territory of Russia through the border.”
The Russian agricultural watchdog said the Chinese authorities did not provide any information on an epidemiological situation in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region that borders Zabaikaye.
The watchdog called on heads of municipalities and farm owners to take necessary veterinary measures to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.