"The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the Kyrgyz districts bordering Uzbekistan causes our concern," Tolagan Umarov, the head of the Main State Veterinary Directorate of Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, told journalists on 4 May, a Regnum news agency reported.

"The country’s emergency antiepidemic commission in late April decided to step up measures to prevent the disease and not to allow it to reach the territory of Uzbekistan," Umarov told journalists.

"At present, veterinary control has been toughened in the border districts. A mass check-up and vaccination of domestic animals is being carried out regardless of ownership with the aim of setting up buffer zones on the border with Kyrgyzstan," he noted.

The representative of the veterinary service said that a group of specialists from the veterinary service were carrying out the monitoring and explanation work among people in the border regions.

"We are informing them about our decision to ban pasturing domestic cattle in the pastures in Kyrgyzstan. Veterinary points at border crossings operate round the clock and a reserve of necessary disinfectants is set up," Umarov said.

A total of 2.5m doses of vaccines against foot-and-mouth have been delivered to border districts and the reserve makes 500,000 doses.