North’s ‘agriculture minister’: smallpox ‘under control’

Dursun Oguz, the north’s ‘agriculture minister’ made assurances on Tuesday morning that the recent outbreaks of smallpox in livestock are now under control.

Cases of smallpox were first detected in sheep and goats in the Famagusta region, with a further spate of cases found last week in the northern Nicosia suburb of Mandres. However, Oguz was keen to reassure those concerned.

“We have taken all the measures that can be taken. We have banned the sale of animals from the quarantined areas and the introduction of animals from outside those areas to there”, Oguz said speaking to local media.

He added that he and his ministry are in “constant contact” with livestock producers, and that he had acquired a total of 20,000 vaccines for the disease from Turkey with which almost 18,000 animals had been vaccinated.

Additionally, Oguz reassured people that meat and dairy products from vaccinated animals are fit for human consumption, saying that “with previous vaccines, milk consumption could be a problem, but there is no problem with the new model of vaccines”.