FMD outbreak escalates in Southern Region

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is continuing to tighten its grip on southern Botswana, with new outbreaks recorded in the Ngwaketse South area as the government battles to contain a disease that has already inflicted a devastating blow on the country’s lucrative beef export ambitions.

A brief contained in the September 2026 Global Disease Monitoring Report by the Swine Health Information Center records two FMD outbreaks in communal cattle in Ngwaketse South, Southern District, in early August. According to the report, the first outbreak began on August 2 and the second on August 5. Together, the outbreaks involved 113 clinical cases among 1,140 susceptible cattle. No deaths were recorded, while 467 cattle were vaccinated.

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