Miyazaki ends foot-and-mouth emergency

The Yomiuri Shimbun

MIYAZAKI--The Miyazaki prefectural government has lifted its state of emergency concerning foot-and-mouth disease, which had broken out among livestock in the prefecture.

The state of emergency officially ended at midnight Monday and was announced shortly thereafter, in the early minutes of Tuesday morning, by Miyazaki Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru in front of the prefectural government building.

The last remaining ban on animal transfers was removed, and normal services were allowed to resume at prefectural facilities.

The nation's first foot-and-mouth disease epidemic in a decade is moving toward its official conclusion. The first case of infection was announced about three months ago.

The prefecture is scheduled to announce the end of the epidemic as early as Aug. 27, after completely disposing of manure left behind by livestock that was killed to prevent the spread of the disease, according to the prefectural government.

After announcing the end of the state of emergency throughout the prefecture, Higashikokubaru thanked the people involved in work to prevent the spread of the disease, as well as prefectural residents, at a press conference in front of the prefectural government building.

"I would like to thank many people from the bottom of my heart as we have reached this day through the utmost efforts of those engaged in the epidemic control work, the cooperation of prefectural residents and the support of many, many people over the 98 days since the outbreak of the disease," Higashikokubaru said.

Previously, movement of live animals and meat was forbidden within 10 kilometers of designated infection sites, and live animals in secondary zones within a 20-kilometer radius of such sites could not be moved out of those zones.

With the removal of the prefecture's last remaining restricted areas, centered on a livestock barn in Miyazaki city recognized as the site of the 285th case of infection, pig farmers in Miyazaki resumed shipments of pigs.

Shozo Hidaka, 55, a pig farmer in the city, moved about 800 pigs from Miyazaki to Kobayashi in the same prefecture. His animals have been confined to the restricted area for about two months. During that period, baby pigs were born one after another, doubling the number of his animals from 3,000 to 6,000.

"They were packed like sardines in hog pens. If the lifting of the restriction had come a week later, it would have ended my business. It's been really hard work from this morning, but it's a really comfortable kind of fatigue," he said Tuesday.

To keep people from unwittingly spreading the disease to new areas, preliminary games in the prefecture for the national high school baseball championship were made off-limits to spectators from the general public, but they were allowed to watch games in person from Tuesday's semifinals at the Sunmarine Stadium Miyazaki.

Spectators went through a prefabricated hut at the entrance of the stadium to be sprayed with disinfectant. The prefectural tournament had been held without spectators for 48 games until Monday.

About 90 public facilities in the city that had been closed since mid-June, including the prefectural library, reopened Tuesday.

A number of schoolchildren visited the Miyazaki Science Center in Miyazaki, reopened to the public for the first time since June 11, as part of their summer studies soon after it opened at 9 a.m.

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry will aim at restoring Japan's status as an "FMD (foot-and-mouth disease) free" country. Japan aims to be granted this status by the World Organization of Animal Health, also known as OIE, when its science committee holds a meeting in February next year.

The ministry has to carry out a three-month inspection to prove that the FMD virus is virtually extinct in the nation and submit a report to the OIE.

The ministry said Tuesday it would launch a committee to examine the validity of measures taken by the national and prefectural governments to combat the disease.

The committee will consist of nine members from outside the ministry, including a lawyer and a scholar. It will examine such problems as the prefecture not having inspected a cow that was suspected of being infected with the disease in June, for instance. The prefecture's initial response to the outbreak in April also will be examined.

The first meeting of the committee will be held Aug. 5, with a final report scheduled to be submitted to Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Masahiko Yamada in October.

The ministry announced on April 20 that foot-and-mouth disease had broken out at a cow barn in Tsunocho in the prefecture. By July 4, the outbreak was confirmed in five cities and six towns including Kawaminamicho.

A total of 211,608 animals that were known or suspected to be infected with the virus have been killed and buried.

Additionally, the national and prefectural governments vaccinated and then killed uninfected bulls, cows and pigs in areas where infections were concentrated. That brought the total number of livestock killed to about 290,000.

The burial of so many animals required a total of about 1.42 million square meters of land. About 150,000 veterinarians, Ground Self-Defense Force members and local governments employees, among others, were mobilized for the work.

Higashikokubaru declared the state of emergency for the prefecture on May 18, asking residents not to go out unnecessarily in restricted areas, except in cases of emergency.