20 May 2024
Agri Eastern Cape and the Red Meat Producers Organisation (RPO) say the government is dragging its feet instead of taking urgent steps to curb the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the province.
Cattle on two properties just outside Humansdorp and a farm in the Zuurveld area, which are operated as a single unit, tested positive for foot-and-mouth disease in April. The farms have been placed under quarantine and their animals vaccinated.
However, animals on a farm 28 km away have now also tested positive and there appears to be no direct link with the original outbreak.
Agri Eastern Cape said the origin of the SAT 3 virus infecting the cattle has yet to be determined, and with the new case unrelated to the previous ones, there is a possibility that the virus is circulating elsewhere in the province.
Therefore, the farmers’ organisation and the RPO believe measures must be urgently implemented to limit the further spread of the disease by controlling livestock movements.
Local stakeholders in the red meat industry have collaborated with the province’s veterinary officials to draft preliminary measures, but these cannot be enforced yet.
Dr Mpho Maja, the director of animal health in the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development must first grant permission. She plans to visit the province next week before agreeing to the measures.
Agri Eastern Cape and the RPO say the department has known about the outbreak in the province since the beginning of the month but no measures have been put in place to manage the movement of animals.
“This is irresponsible and the Department of Agriculture is failing the red meat industry,” they said. “Minister [Thoko] Didiza and her officials will have to answer if it later turns out that this delay in restricting animal movements contributed to the disease spreading beyond the boundaries of the Kouga municipal area.”
Next week, Willem van Jaarsveld from the foot-and-mouth disease forum will meet organisations serving the red meat industry to discuss issues related to foot-and-mouth disease and ways to make self-regulation more effective. He believes the industry should stop expecting the government to address the problem.“Animal diseases are primarily a problem for producers and consumers, and then for the government. We need a new approach to the responsibility for animal health that enables us to protect our own interests,” he said.
