Morocco Exported Cattle That Is Infected With Plague to Algeria

Over 600 cattle that was delivered by the Moroccan authorities since weeks ago to the Algerian authorities are infected with dangerous and killer diseases, including the plague and foot illnesses, Agriculture Director of Naama Province (Southern Algeria), told Echorouk.

“Reports of the laboratories of Tlemcen (western Algeria), which analyses the samples proved the infection with the same deadly disease”.

“Local authorities moved to take the decision to put all parts of the province under the health monitoring, and divided it into three regions, a seizure area which is the border region of Sfissifa and the urban region, and the other neighbouring areas of the municipalities that are under health surveillance, in order to monitor the infected cases to confine the epidemic, and at the same time the document of crossing the border that is given by the veterinarians for the cattle, and the issuance of provincial decision to the extermination of livestock, which has already been done by slaughtering 43 head of cattle in the presence of all the relevant authorities, which signed the minutes of the damage No. 01/2016 on 05/09 / 2016, which copy is available to Echorouk”.

Same source took a copy but the authorities did not comply with their pledge and slaughtered them without taking the sample, which was supposed to be delivered to the competent laboratories to conduct new analyses, and the remaining number, according to the same source, which is more than 400 head of cattle that were brought from Morocco, according to the director of agricultural services, was sold by the owner of the cattle in different municipalities, which made it difficult to exterminate the rest of the heads.

Moroccan security authorities, handed over their Algerian counterpart last month, over 600 sheep across the border crossing of Beni Ouanif, Bechar (southern Algeria), after the cattle stayed three months in the Moroccan territory, where they entered because they lost the road during the whirlwinds of sand.

In the same context, Echorouk source ruled out the idea that the cattle is carrying this epidemic from the area where they stayed three months in Morocco, because the environment there is not infected, and opened the probabilities in front of each disease.

“A decision was taken to impose censorship on all cattle that roam the parts of the province, and that are sold in the local markets, so that farmers can sell their livestock without resorting to the decision to close the markets temporarily due to the negative economic implications, because the profession of livestock is done by a large number of Naama province residents”.

On the other hand, the cattle’s owner, his sons and relatives held meetings with the relevant authorities in order to find a legal formula that enables to compensate on the cattle that was exterminated, but he did not receive assurances in this regard, and the committees that were formed after the results of the laboratory analysis remain pursuing the rest of the heads in order to be subject to healthy slaughter.