Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraq has stepped up measures to curb diseases threatening livestock, including Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), while seeking to boost domestic production and reduce reliance on meat imports, the Agriculture Ministry said.
Ministry spokesperson Qusay Al-Hattab told Shafaq News on Friday that veterinary teams, working with the Health Ministry, carry out seasonal campaigns across the provinces to spray cattle and buffalo and dip sheep and goats with deltamethrin to reduce the risk of CCHF.
The ministry is also supporting livestock and poultry producers, easing administrative procedures, and seeking to expand domestic production, Al-Hattab said, with poultry projects that previously needed approvals from 11 ministries to renew licenses for table-egg and chicken-meat production now requiring approvals from two. It is also tightening controls on unauthorized movement of animals and meat between provinces and across Iraq’s borders, while quarantine centers at border crossings monitor incoming animals and products in coordination with the Border Ports Authority and security agencies.
In January, FAO launched an emergency regional project to strengthen FMD surveillance, laboratory diagnosis, reporting, and preparedness in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan in response to the regional emergence of the SAT1 serotype, first reported in Iraq in March 2025.
According to Shafaq News’ tracker, Iraq also recorded 167 confirmed cases of CCHF and 11 deaths so far in 2026.