JEDDAH, 25 September 2004 — Saudi authorities have decided to destroy more than 300 heads of smuggled sheep in the southern Jizan region after they showed symptoms of deadly Rift Valley Fever.
The move comes as part of the government’s efforts to rid the Kingdom of the disease, which caused the death of more than 120 people and 18,000 cattle when it hit Jizan region four years ago.
Agriculture Minister Dr. Fahd Balghaneim said the sheep culled for slaughter were smuggled into the Kingdom from neighboring Yemen.
“We have returned the herd to Al-Tiwal border post and they are now kept in a special quarantine,” he said.
The Ministry of Agriculture announced about 10 days ago that five animals in Jizan — four in Abu Areesh and one in Aaridah — had been tested positive of the disease.
The Health Ministry has confirmed that no RVF cases have so far been reported among humans in the Jizan region. “We have inspected all patients admitted to King Fahd Hospital in Jizan and the General Hospital in Aaridha.
“We did not find any suspected RVF cases among them,” said Dr. Tariq ibn Ahmed Madani, an internist and adviser to Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie.
Madani was a member of the ministry’s team who recently visited the region on the instructions of Al-Manie following reports of fresh outbreak of the virus in Jizan.
Dr. Yaaqub Al-Mazroue, assistant deputy health minister for preventive medicine, also visited Jizan and inspected the arrangements made by the Health Ministry to prevent the spread of the disease as well as the progress of work at disease combat centers.
Madani said his team checked all the files of patients admitted at Jizan hospitals for the past three months to make sure they were not infected with RVF virus.
The team also visited the laboratory of the Agriculture Ministry and met with veterinarians and other experts there as well as the areas where the five cases were reported.
Balghuneim urged the authorities to be cautious about the RVF virus, which is capable of surviving in the eggs of mosquitoes for a long time and can surface whenever it finds a hospitable environment.
The Agriculture Ministry has set up an early warning unit to monitor and contain infectious diseases affecting agricultural and animal resources in certain regions before they spread to other parts of the Kingdom.
RVF primarily affects animals but occasionally causes illness in humans, where it leads to high morbidity and mortality.
