Czech Republic firefighters join Slovakia’s fight against foot-and-mouth outbreak

Posted on by Vividh Bharathi

Prague, March 26 (IANS) The Czech Republic dispatched a team of 16 firefighters to neighbouring Slovakia to assist in efforts to contain the spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

According to the Czech Fire and Rescue Service, the firefighters will support their Slovak colleagues with decontamination operations as part of the emergency response.

The Slovak government declared a state of emergency on Tuesday after confirming additional FMD cases at a fourth farm. The latest case was identified in the Dunajska Streda district, near the previously affected southern villages of Medvedov, Narad, and Baka, where the disease was first confirmed last Friday.

In response to the outbreak, the Czech Republic last week reinstated border controls with Slovakia. Czech police and veterinary inspectors are enforcing a ban on livestock imports from affected areas at four major border crossings.

Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious viral illness that primarily affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats. It causes fever, loss of appetite, excessive salivation, and blisters on the mouth and feet, Xinhua news agency reported.

In the Czech Republic, the disease was last detected in 1975.

According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a severe, highly contagious viral disease of livestock that has a significant economic impact. The disease affects cattle, swine, sheep, goats and other cloven-hoofed ruminants.

It is a transboundary animal disease (TAD) that deeply affects the production of livestock and disrupts regional and international trade in animals and animal products. Members that are currently free of FMD without vaccination remain under constant threat of an incursion. FMD is caused by an Aphthovirus of the family Picornaviridae.

There are seven viral serotypes (A, O, C, SAT1, SAT2, SAT3, and Asia1). FMDV serotype C has not been isolated by the network of WOAH/FAO Reference Laboratories for FMD since 2004, and no serotype C events have been reported to WOAH since then.

The remaining serotypes are present in different countries and territories worldwide. Each serotype requires a specific vaccine to provide immunity to a vaccinated animal.

The prevention of FMD is dependent on the presence of early detection and warning systems and the implementation of effective surveillance among other measures.

–IANS

int/jk/as

Related Posts

South Korea: Police make another request for questioning to suspended Prez Yoon’s security team chief

Seoul, Jan 5 (IANS) South Korea’s Police again requested two top officials of the presidential security office to appear for questioning for their alleged obstruction of official duties related to the state anti-corruption agency’s attempt to detain suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Park Chong-jun, chief of the Presidential Security Service (PSS), and Deputy Kim Seong-hoon were booked on suspicion of obstructing special official duties, as PSS officials, along with military members, blocked the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) from executing a warrant to detain Yoon on Friday over his short-lived martial law declaration on December 3, Yonhap news agency reported.

After a standoff for about six hours at the presidential residence in Seoul, the CIO halted the attempt to detain Yoon.

The joint investigation team requested the two officials to come under probe Saturday, but they refused to do so, saying they cannot leave their position “even for a moment” given the gravity of the situation in providing security for Yoon.

In response, the investigation team sent another request to Park to appear for questioning on Tuesday and Kim on Wednesday.

The CIO is expected to make another attempt to detain Yoon as early as Sunday, as it has until Monday to execute the detention warrant on charges of insurrection and abuse of power.

The agency once again called on acting President Choi Sang-mok to instruct the presidential security team to cooperate on its execution of the detention warrant.

The six opposition parties, led by the Democratic Party, demanded punishment for Park over his role in Friday’s standoff.

In a joint press conference at the National Assembly, the floor leaders of the six parties said Park should be immediately removed from his position and be arrested on charges of obstruction of official duties, concealment of an offender and abuse of power.

The parties also accused Park and the rest of the PSS of being accomplices to insurrection.

They charged that acting President Choi Sang-mok is also responsible for the standoff and that he must get the PSS to cooperate with the CIO.

The opposition parties called on the CIO to execute the arrest warrant “quickly,” adding, “There must never be another retreat.”

–IANS

int/rs

BSF opens fire after suspicious movement on India-Pak border in Jammu

Jammu, Jan 1 (IANS) Alert troops of the Border Security Force (BSF) on Wednesday opened fire after noticing suspicious movement on the international border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir’s R.S. Pura sector.

BSF spokesperson said that alert troops opened fire upon detecting suspicious movement at the IB in the R.S.Pura sector this morning.

“The incident occurred when the BSF sentry observed movement originating from the Pakistani side prompting immediate action.

“Over a dozen rounds were fired to deter any potential intrusion. Following the incident, a search operation was launched in the forward areas,” the spokesman said.

The Army and the BSF guarding the Line of Control (LoC) and the IB in J&K are maintaining high alert to ensure that no infiltration takes place from the Pakistani side to vitiate peace in the union territory.

A heightened alert is also maintained by police and the security forces along the border and the hinterland after reports that terrorists are waiting to infiltrate the Indian side from the Pakistan side of the border.

Intelligence agencies believe that after peaceful and people-participative Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly elections in J&K, the handlers of terrorism in Pakistan have got frustrated and have directed the terrorists to give the dying terrorism in the union territory its last push.

It was against this backdrop that two terrorists, a foreign mercenary and a local terrorist fired indiscriminately inside the workers’ camp in the Gagangir area of Ganderbal district on October 20 last year.

Seven civilians, including six non-local workers of an infrastructure development company and a local doctor, were killed in the Gagangir attack.

On October 24, 2024, terrorists ambushed an army vehicle in the Botapathri area of Gulmarg. Three soldiers and two civilian porters were killed in that attack.

On November 2, 2024, terrorists hurled a grenade at the busy Sunday Market near the tourist reception centre (TRC) in Srinagar.

A 42-year-old woman, a mother of three children, was killed in that attack and nine other civilians were injured.

–IANS

sq/dpb

Two killed, 10 injured in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon

Beirut, Feb 1 (IANS) Two people were killed and 10 others injured in Israeli airstrikes in eastern Lebanon, according to official and security sources.

The Public Health Emergency Operations Center of Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health confirmed in a statement that the Israeli airstrikes on Friday targeted Janta, a village in the Bekaa region, resulting in casualties, Xinhua news agency reported.

A Lebanese security source, who requires anonymity, told Xinhua that “Israeli warplanes carried out four airstrikes at dawn on Friday, targeting Janta and illegal crossings along the Lebanese-Syrian border in eastern Lebanon.”

The source added that “Israeli jets fired eight air-to-ground missiles at the targeted areas, causing several casualties, destroying a truck, and inflicting significant damage on illegal crossings linking Lebanon and Syria.”

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that “Israeli warplanes launched several airstrikes at around 3:00 a.m. Friday on the eastern mountain range in the Bekaa region.”

It added that “the strikes also hit a truck carrying batteries and scrap metal in the Al-Wawiyat area, and the Jabb Al-Ward crossing near the outskirts of the town of Hanider in eastern Lebanon.”

A senior official from the Lebanese Civil Defence told Xinhua that rescue teams transported “two bodies and several wounded individuals from the targeted sites to hospitals in the Bekaa region,” noting that “one of the injured is in critical condition, and rescue operations are still ongoing.”

Since November 27, 2024, a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon has been in place, halting clashes that erupted between the Israeli army and Hezbollah on October 8, 2023, amid the war in Gaza. The conflict escalated further in September 2024.

Despite the ceasefire, the Israeli military continues to carry out strikes in Lebanon, claiming they are aimed at neutralising Hezbollah threats.

The agreement set a 60-day deadline for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon, but this deadline expired on January 26 without completion of the withdrawal.

–IANS

int/rs