Gauteng Agriculture prioritises vaccination amid foot, mouth outbreak – SABC Information

The Gauteng Agriculture Department says it will make the vaccination of animals its priority, as foot and mouth disease continues to spread across the country.

At least 32 active cases of foot and mouth disease have been reported in Gauteng.

Agriculture MEC Vuyiswa Ramogopa says they’ve received at least 100 doses of vaccinations. She was addressing the media in Johannesburg.

“One hundred and thirty-five (135) doses, which we have received already, we have administered them all, so our vaccination program has been quite comprehensive, and we have managed to administer all doses of vaccine that we received. A big portion of those went to areas where the foot and mouth disease outbreak was most prevalent, which is the Karan beef site that we visited in Heidelberg.”

The viral infection affecting cloven-hoofed animals is threatening livestock and livelihoods across South Africa’s agricultural sector.

The disease was first detected on April 11 in KwaZulu-Natal, with further outbreaks later confirmed in Mpumalanga and Gauteng and recently in the Free State.

In Mpumalanga, the first cases were recorded on a farm in the Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Local Municipality and at an abattoir in the Dipaleseng Local Municipality in June.

Many local farmers have expressed concern about the impact of the disease on livestock, productivity, food security, and income.

In light of this, the Department of Agriculture will host a high-level national Foot and Mouth Disease Indaba. The two-day Indaba, taking place on Monday and Tuesday at the ARC-VIMP Campus in Roodeplaat, comes in response to ongoing FMD outbreaks across several provinces.

Indaba to tackle escalating Foot-and-Mouth disease: Thabile Nkunjana & Dr Dirk Verwoed