POOR CONTROL ON BOSNIAN BORDERS FACILITATES SPREADING OF DISEASES

SARAJEVO, Nov 28 (Hina) - On Bosnian borders there is an absolute absence of efficient control of live cattle imports which facilitates the spreading of various diseases and viruses, top officials at the Agriculture Ministry in Bosnia's Croat-Muslim federation said on Tuesday. Federal Agriculture Minister Faruk Mekic told a press conference in Sarajevo that this year, at least 130 people in Bosnia had caught the so-called O-fever, spread by infected cattle and sheep. Tests conducted by veterinary inspectors have shown the disease has infected two percent of cattle and a little over 2.5 percent of sheep examined on federation territory. "A check-up resulted in the finding of 708 heads of cattle infected with Q-fever," said Jozo Bagaric, the federal agriculture minister's assistant for veterinary medicine. Minister Mekic said that at present it was impossible to control imported cattle, and that a quarantine could be established only within the federation. In Bosnia's other entity, the Serb republic, cattle is imported with no supervision at all, often across illegal border crossings, which facilitates the spreading of infectious diseases, he said. This and the absence of control labs also hinders Bosnian authorities from effectively preventing the spreading of mad cow disease, Bagaric said, adding a ban on beef imports from Germany was introduced in the federation earlier on Monday. (hina) ha