The ||Kharas Police Commander, Marius Katamila, has commended the region's farming community for their cooperation and adherence to Foot-and-Mouth Disease animal movement restrictions.

The restrictions were imposed following an outbreak of FMD at a farm in Karasburg district.

The highly contagious virus, affecting cloven-hoofed animals, has since spread to more farms in the said district.

Police roadblocks at strategic points in the ||Kharas Region, which is the FMD epicentre, have become an important line of defence to curb the spread of the viral disease to other areas.

"People have a tendency of getting information not through the right sources, and as a result there are a lot of rumours going on. For now, cloven-hoofed animals are what we are concentrating on. And we are in consultation with the Department of Veterinary Services on a dialysis basis. In fact, in what we refer to as the epicentre, there are up to 13 veterinary services doctors there, and they are the ones guiding us in terms of where to focus our attention and which roads to cover."

Commissioner Katamila appealed to the public to engage police on unproclaimed roads that could be used to strengthen enforcement efforts.

"To date, there we did have complaints as such that people are not cooperating. But as we know, human beings will always have that odd one or two or three that wants to take changes. This is not a time to take changes. If the police get you with meat, and if you cannot give an account as to where that meat comes from, especially in and around the farms that are affected and beyond, and then for obvious reasons we will have to then enforce the regulation currently in place."

The senior cop indicated that police will continue to set up roadblocks across to ensure compliance with FMD restrictions.