Agri Eastern Cape said it was confident sheep on the Al Messilah stock carrier vessel that fell ill with the orf virus while on their way to the Middle East from East London would not suffer unduly.
The National Council of SPCAs has raised the alarm over an infectious disease outbreak at a feedlot housing 56,000 sheep destined for live export by ship from East London to the Middle East.
The Eastern Cape government has downplayed fears that thousands of sheep loaded onto the livestock carrier Al Messilah, destined for Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for slaughter, may be carrying an infectious disease after cases of ecthyma were detected at a feedlot where they were kept. This comes after the National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) raised the alarm over the infectious disease.
First came the stench. Then a burning in the eyes and nose the telltale sign of ammonia. Manure everywhere, in the feed troughs and water troughs, in a ship carrying 19,000 cattle.
The smell seeping out from the harbour where the Al Mawashi live sheep transport ship was moored while 50,000 sheep were loaded, grabbed at the lungs and nasal passages for days last week.