The Beefmaster Group has warned that the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak which occurred on a farm in Humansdorp, in the Eastern Cape, could be more pervasive than what it was believed to be, given a lack of evidence of biosecurity measures.
The affected farm has been placed under quarantine and a full epidemiological investigation has commenced to identify the possible origin of the virus.
The Kouga Local Municipality announced the prohibition of movement of animals within its borders to mitigate the spread of the highly contagious viral infection as surrounding areas have also been affected.said
Beefmaster supply chain executive, Roelie van Reenen, said the FMD continued to be a threat due to several factors, including the movement of animals from FMD control zones or hotspots, to other areas, a breaking of the rules and regulations, insufficient vaccination coverage, and a lack of awareness, amongst others. Van Reenen said it was the industry’s lack of adequate practices and biosecurity that assisted this virus to spread.
“We as the industry are the only defence against FMD. The virus does not spread on its own. We as the industry spread it through negligence and our laissez-faire attitude,” van Reenen said.
“Biosecurity measures have been proven to work in reducing the risk of FMD spreading, however, it only works if industry players enforce controls.”
Van Reenen said many industry role players had already gone to great lengths at feedlots and farms to try to limit or prevent the outbreak of disease, for example, with the installation of bubble or isolation hubs, but there was the opportunity to do more.
He said the biggest challenge was complacency “as if there was no immediate threat or danger.”
“We cannot continue to do business without robust biosecurity in place. It is no longer safe to rely on relationships or history and to say ‘I know where my cattle comes from because I’ve been buying from this place for many years’.
“No one is safe from FMD and the only way we are going to tackle it is if we are serious and accept that we need strict measures in place,” van Reenen said.
Recently, the Beefmaster Group announced that South African beef was now available on the shelves of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
This followed a landmark agreement between South Africa and the Kingdom which was signed in 2022.
In March this year, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development said South Africa had made commendable progress in containing and closing the FMD outbreaks that have plagued the country since 2021.
At the time, only KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State had areas with unresolved outbreaks in the previous FMD-free zones.
The department said all other outbreaks in the previous FMD-free zone had been resolved and closed with the World Organisation for Animal Health.
By that time, no cases of FMD were reported in the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Western Cape, meaning that they have remained FMD-free without vaccination.
The last outbreaks in the previous FMD-free zones in Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West were reported more than a year ago, in November 2022.
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