FMD Response SA has warned that South Africa’s current vaccination strategy against Foot-and-mouth disease could fail to contain the outbreak.
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Industry group FMD Response SA has warned that South Africa’s current vaccination strategy against Foot-and-mouth disease could fail to contain the outbreak.
This comes after Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen held a press briefing on Tuesday, announcing a new vaccination scheme that will allow farmers greater control over protecting their livestock, alongside a national rollout targeting 80% of the herd by the end of 2026.
FMD Response SA spokesperson Andrew Morphew said the current plan has a 95% chance of failure, arguing that the pace of vaccination is too slow to achieve herd immunity.
“While we greatly appreciate the government’s commitment to SA’s farmers, as well as the acquisition of superior vaccines to control the virus, the current strategy and vaccination rollout at farm level remains fundamentally inadequate,” Morphew said.
Morphew added that "the only way to stop the disease spreading is to ensure that the country’s 14 million cattle are vaccinated within a tight timeframe of six to eight weeks to ensure nearly all of the country’s cattle become immune to the virus, halting its spread".
Currently, the government aims to vaccinate 80% of the national herd by December 2026 as part of its phased rollout strategy. However, Morphew has argued that this "timeline presents serious challenges, as some cattle will lose immunity when vaccine protection wanes after approximately six months, before other cattle are vaccinated, allowing the disease to continue spreading".
“No country in the world has achieved World Organisation Animal Health FMD-free-with-vaccination-status using annual rolling single-dose campaigns”.
“The private sector is ready and willing to assist the government and wants to contribute to the FMD effort immediately and in a way that will be effective.”
He also criticised the Department of Agriculture’s Section 10 scheme, saying its state-controlled vaccine distribution was “a recipe for failure
“This approach is a recipe for failure. As demonstrated by the successful vaccination campaigns of Brazil and Argentina, private distribution is essential to ensure vaccines reach farms timeously and are administered effectively at the farm level. Requiring the state to centrally control distribution leads to bottlenecks and delays,”
mthobisi.nozulela@iol.co.za
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