South Africa’s Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen has acknowledged serious shortcomings in the country’s response to the ongoing foot and mouth disease (FMD) crisis as a national dialogue opened Monday to chart a new course for containment and recovery.
Speaking at the Foot and Mouth Disease Indaba in Roodeplaat near Pretoria, Steenhuisen said the recent wave of outbreaks had exposed a “response system stretched to its limits,” citing breakdowns in communication, vaccine delays and confusion over movement controls as key failures.
“What we saw was a response system stretched to its limits, with breakdowns in communication, severe delays in vaccine availability, confusion over movement controls, and an alarming lack of readiness at several levels of government,” he said.
FMD outbreaks have been confirmed in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and most recently the Free State, prompting livestock movement restrictions and triggering trade suspensions from key international markets.
The disease, which affects cloven-hoofed animals, has led to over 270 reported cases, with 249 still unresolved.
“The reputational damage to our animal health system is one that will take time, and action, to repair,” Steenhuisen said, adding that the lack of a functional regionalisation framework had resulted in blanket trade penalties despite localised outbreaks.
“The core lesson is this: we cannot continue managing FMD outbreaks with outdated structures and fragmented authority, hoping that a patchwork of short-term measures will deliver long-term stability.”
The two-day Indaba, hosted by the Department of Agriculture in partnership with the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), University of Pretoria, and Onderstepoort Biological Products, aims to develop a science-based, constitutionally aligned strategy to combat FMD.
Key focus areas during the event include strengthening farm-level biosecurity, enhancing vaccine production and distribution, reinforcing animal movement controls, and improving surveillance and traceability systems.
The outcomes of the Indaba are expected to inform South Africa’s revised national FMD strategy and help stabilise its multibillion-rand livestock sector, which has suffered significant economic losses due to repeated outbreaks.
JN/APA