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Botswana battles anthrax
22/09/2004 19:56 - (SA)
Maun, Botwana - An anthrax outbreak among wildlife in one of Botswana's largest game reserves showed no signs of abating on Wednesday, with at least half of Chobe National Park remaining closed to tourists.
A total of 150 buffalos have died of the disease, up from 68 on Monday, while one elephant has died, national parks wildlife director Joseph Matlhare said.
"In order to allow the staff of the department to dispose of carcasses, prevent any threat to public health and further spread of the disease, the affected areas of the park are closed to all public access," Matlhare told AFP.
About 50% of the park - mostly the central and western areas where the main waterhole is based - are still closed, forcing tour operators to either cancel or postpone bookings.
"It is the best area for game viewing because it is along the river and at the waterfront," said Chris Kruger, a director of Okavango Wilderness Safaris, one of the country's largest companies that operates game drives in the park.
"While there are other areas to take tourists on game drives, the portions that have closed are the areas that matter in terms of animal population and the number of tourists viewing wildlife from there," said Kruger.
The closed portion is along the Chobe River, the border between Botswana with Namibia.
Small area affected
"Tourists and operators affected by the closure... are requested to contact the parks and reserves reservations Office to change their bookings or obtain a refund," Matlhare said.
"The outbreak is still continuing and while localised outbreaks of anthrax do occur in nature, they are normally not as significant as the present one," he added.
The anthrax outbreak was first reported on September 8 but was only made public a week later.
Tourism brings in about $104m in revenue to Botswana and the outbreak has sparked fears of major financial losses.
Anthrax has broken out before in the Chobe National Park. The most recent previous outbreak, in 1996, was attributed to buffaloes that had strayed into the park from Namibia.
Symptoms include skin infections that can develop into ulcers or swelling of lymph glands, breathing problems, vomiting and fever.
Wildlife authorities are trying to nail down the origin of the acute infectious bacterial disease which mainly affects wild and domestic animals but can also pose a risk to humans exposed to the infected animals or their tissue.
Assistant director of the department of wildlife and national parks Jan Broekhuis said: "As a result of the anthrax outbreak only a small portion of the 10 000km2 park is closed.
"The closed area along the central and western river front area in the north of the park is only 270km2 in size, or 2.7% of the surface area of the park.
"Most areas of the park are open for business as usual."
- SAPA
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