Explainer: Namibia’s FMD restrictions on meat and milk

The detection of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) in Namibia’s livestock sector has triggered strict emergency biosecurity measures. FMD is a highly contagious viral disease affecting cloven-hoofed animals, primarily cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and wild game.

To prevent the virus from spreading and to protect Namibia’s crucial international meat export markets, the Directorate of Veterinary Services (DVS) has passed rigid protocols regarding the movement of livestock and food products.

**Status of dairy products **

Traditional fresh and sour milk like omaere and other dairy items still face specific regional movement restrictions because the FMD virus can survive in raw milk and traditional non-thermal fermentations.

Moving raw, unpasteurised milk or traditionally fermented omaere across veterinary control checkpoints, especially from north to south across the Veterinary Cordon Fence/Red Line or out of active FMD containment zones, is strictly prohibited. Homemade dairy products attempting to cross these checkpoints will be confiscated and destroyed.

Commercially packaged pasteurised milk, pasteurised omaere, and commercial butter are all completely permitted for nationwide movement and trade. Commercial pasteurisation uses high heat that successfully neutralises the FMD virus, making these products legally safe to transport from region to region.

**Status of meat products **

The current FMD regulations also govern how meat and various meat products can move within the southern FMD-free zone, and across international borders. Compliance is mandatory to protect the country’s livestock industry.

**Donkeys and horses **

Considering that donkeys and horses are odd-toed ungulates and not cloven-hoofed animals, their meat is allowed to freely move across the country.

**What is allowed? **

Commercially cooked meat, biltong and droëwors from registered facilities can move and trade across the entire country. Thoroughly cooked meat that is completely free of blood is allowed for personal consumption. This simply means anyone who is willing to transport meat from the farm to town or village to village must simply just make sure it is cooked. The practtice has been a norm at the disease control gates such as Werda and Oshivelo where meat from the north of the cordon fence is allowed south, if it is cooked or boiled.

Raw meat bought directly from registered retail shops or butcheries south of the fence can be transported if you carry proof of purchase or a till slip.

Slaughtering animals strictly for your own home or family consumption is permitted, as long as the meat stays on that property.

Moving cloven-hoofed animals and their products remains generally permitted within the northern zone, except in the Zambezi region.

Animals coming from approved, registered feedlots or quarantine facilities can move directly to registered abattoirs for slaughter if they pass health checks and test negative for FMD.

Poultry, eggs, and fish are not cloven-hoofed animals and face standard regulations rather than FMD meat bans.

**What is not allowed? **

Moving raw beef, lamb, goat, pork, or game meat from the northern zone across the Veterinary Cordon Fence into the southern zone is strictly prohibited.

Slaughtering animals on private farms or homesteads for commercial sale or local markets is banned.

Raw meat and animal products originating from local butcheries, abattoirs, informal slaughter slabs, or cold storage facilities inside the //Kharas region cannot be freely distributed or moved out of the area while investigations and controls continue.

Importing raw meat or cloven-hoofed animal products from high-risk neighbouring countries such as Botswana and South Africa without official veterinary permits and health certificates is banned, while the informal selling of meat, such as unpermitted roadside kapana or unverified local slaughters, is strictly restricted in areas affected by FMD, including in Windhoek.

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