News
Livestock department seals farm with infected Australian sheep
KARACHI: The Livestock department has sealed the farm where Australian sheep believed to be infected with a contagious disease are being kept.
The livestock department is taking blood samples of the sheep and their health will be verified and investigated.
22,000 infected Australian sheep were unloaded at Port Qasim on Tuesday night. Approximately 75,000 sheep departed from Australia on board the Fremantle-based Wellard Rural Exports ship Ocean Drover. Their destination was countries in the Middle East. 53,000 sheep were offloaded in Qatar and Oman, while the remaining 22,000 were to be transported to Bahrain.
However when the Ocean Drover arrived in Bahrain on August 29 it was asked to leave its berth until matters were resolved. It was here that concerns were raised in regards to the sheep being infected with scabby mouth disease.
The ship remained in the waters of Bahrain for 14 days and the sheep were not allowed to be unloaded. According to standard rules, the ship should have returned to Australia, however its next destination was a city which was not even part of its original route.
The Ocean Drover docked in Port Qasim, Karachi on Tuesday night. The 22,000 sheep were offloaded and handed over to an unknown buyer.
After Geo News highlighted this issue, Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Ghauri ordered an investigation into how the sheep were unloaded in Karachi.
Courtesy www.geo.tv