The agriculture department has ensured that 45 teams will be deployed daily to 45 locations to vaccinate up to 90,000 animals per day against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), aiming to protect the 2.4-million cattle herd in KwaZulu-Natal.
Agriculture minister John Steenhuisen made this announcement on Friday as he visited Colbourne dairy farm near Mooi River as part of the launch of the department’s national mass vaccination strategy to decisively deal with FMD outbreaks in the country.
The province is identified as the FMD primary risk epicentre, housing more than 1.6-million cattle in high-priority zones.
On February 21 the first large consignment of FMD vaccines, 1-million doses from Biogénesis Bagó in Argentina, arrived in South Africa. The Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) ensured the rapid disbursement of the vaccines to all provinces by Wednesday.
The following number of doses were distributed per province:
- KwaZulu-Natal — 200,000 doses;
- Mpumalanga — 100,000 doses;
- North West — 100,000 doses;
- Free State — 200,000 doses;
- Eastern Cape — 150,000 doses;
- Limpopo — 100,000 doses;
- Gauteng — 70,000 doses;
- Northern Cape — 50,000 doses; and
- Western Cape — 30,000 doses.
The department said the country also secured Dollvet vaccine from Türkiye, with the first consignment of 1.5-million doses arriving on Saturday, and millions more to arrive from Argentina shortly thereafter.
We are committed to protecting the livelihoods of our farmers, from our communal lands to our commercial operations
— John Steenhuisen, agriculture minister
The Agricultural Research Council has committed to producing 20,000 vaccines per week and scaling this production up to 200,000 per week by 2027.
Steenhuisen commended the KwaZulu-Natal agriculture and rural development department for its “zero-waste” approach in starting vaccinations just 24 hours after receiving supplies.
“We are committed to protecting the livelihoods of our farmers, from our communal lands to our commercial operations,” he said.
He also addressed the economic distress within the dairy sector with a clear policy shift, indicating that, effective from February 24, there are no restrictions on milk from vaccinated, uninfected farms or from farms that have not been infected or suspected of being infected with FMD.
For the movement of milk from quarantined farms, only a single pasteurisation process will be required for local consumption. Milk that originates from properties under FMD restriction may not be processed for the export market, unless expressly agreed to by the importing country.
“We are moving away from treating high-risk farms as guilty until proven innocent.”
Only farms with confirmed or clinical signs of infection will be quarantined, he said.
“We will not stop until FMD is eradicated, and South Africa receives its ‘FMD free with vaccination’ status. This is our promise to our farmers: We are doing everything in our power to keep your milk moving and your herds safe.”
Steenhuisen also welcomed the cabinet’s approval of the national mass vaccination programme and National Treasury’s reallocation of about R400m underspent agriculture funds toward the fight against FMD.
TimesLIVE
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.