Government urges reporting of illegal animal movements to control foot and mouth disease
Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen has called on the beef industry to follow the new rules aimed at stopping foot and mouth disease
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Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen has called on the beef industry to follow new rules aimed at stopping foot-and-mouth disease and urged the public to report any illegal actions to help control the outbreak.
IOL previously reported that South Africa has been battling FMD for several months, prompting key trading partners, including Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, and China, to suspend imports of meat and related animal products from the country.
In response to the outbreak, the government has implemented new directives aimed at regulating the movement of cloven-hoofed livestock across the country. These directives require that all livestock movements be supervised and comply strictly with biosecurity measures. Only animals that meet these standards are allowed to move.
“Animals should only be moved if they have been checked and are free of foot and mouth disease. They should not be mixed with others in feedlots until their health status has been confirmed," Steenhuisen said.
"We're calling on maximum cooperation from the entire value chain, from farm level all the way through to consumer, to assist us in dealing with this particular matter, reporting unlawful behaviour where it is observed and also making sure there's strict adherence to the regulations. It's the only way we're going to get on top of foot and mouth disease in South Africa"
The minister also added that the government has allocated R43 million to purchase vaccines and has started vaccinating animals in affected areas, including Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
"We've put aside R43 million departmental budget to date for the purchase of vaccines. Now we haven't used all of that yet. The first batch of 900,000 vaccines arrived in South Africa last week and we commenced with the vaccination over the weekend," he said.
mthobisi.nozulela@iol.co.za
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