With efforts to date proving unsuccessful at curbing the spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in KwaZulu-Natal and even beyond, industry leaders are jointly calling on government to declare the problem an official disaster.

By Lloyd Phillips, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad  

KwaZulu-Natal’s Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (KZN COGTA) must urgently declare the province’s long-time and still growing FMD problem as an official disaster. Failing to do so puts South Africa’s entire livestock and wildlife products value chain at major economic risk.

This is according to leaders of red meat, wool, dairy, pork and game commodity organisations who recently met under the banner of the KZN Agricultural Union (Kwanalu) to discuss the seemingly presently unstoppable spread of potentially economically devastating FMD in predominantly KZN that currently has approximately 150 open cases of this disease.

A statement by Kwanalu reminds that when KZN experienced FMD outbreaks in 2021, state animal health authorities imposed a large disease management area (DMA) in the north of the province. On paper, and in a bid to stop these 2021 outbreaks in their tracks, strict livestock movement controls accompanied this DMA.

However, FMD continued to spread outside the original DMA, prompting state animal health authorities to significantly expand the boundaries of this DMA earlier this year. Still, though, new outbreaks of FMD are identified even outside of this larger DMA.

“Despite gazetted containment efforts, the continued spread of FMD is largely due to uncontrolled livestock movements, particularly from communal herds. The economic impact is severe and far-reaching, affecting all sectors of the livestock and wildlife value chain and threatening the viability of commercial and emerging farming operations alike,” says Kwanalu’s statement.

“Producers within the DMA face movement restrictions, economic distress and a lack of viable market pathways.”

Agribusinesses are under threat

Sandy La Marque, Kwanalu’s chief executive officer, points out that especially small to mid-sized agricultural businesses face closure due to the ongoing scourge of FMD. Furthermore, the state’s failed control efforts to date have eroded the livestock and wildlife value chains’ confidence in veterinary protocols whilst simultaneously having exposed numerous shortcomings in the state animal health authorities’ responsibilities of enforcement, administration and management.

Leaders of the SA Pork Producers’ Organisation (SAPPO), the national Milk Producers’ Organisation (MPO), the KZN Red Meat Producers’ Organisation (KZN RPO), Wildlife Ranching SA (WRSA), the National Wool Growers’ Association (NWGA), and of Kwanalu, are now jointly “urgently calling on the Minister of Agriculture to support a request to COGTA to have KZN declared a disaster for FMD.”

“This declaration is seen as critical to unlocking the funding, resources, and enforcement capacity, needed to implement effective control measures before the FMD outbreaks spiral into a greater national agricultural and economic crisis,” adds Kwanalu’s statement.

Although the vast majority of FMD outbreaks are in KZN, there are also 39 still open outbreaks in the Eastern Cape, and one each in Gauteng and Mpumalanga.

The livestock and wildlife industry leaders are reportedly warning the rest of South Africa is at risk and that the existing and potential economic threats of this should not be taken lightly. On 12 May, and due to the ongoing spread of FMD, China, the largest importer of South African red meat by volume, suspended its imports of various products from FMD-susceptible species.

“We as organised agriculture are doing our best to get everything done, from supporting the livestock transporting permit office to appealing for support from the SA Police Service and the Road Traffic Inspectorate and other resources. However, we need more government support,” says Angus Williamson who is Kwanalu’s vice president and the KZN RPO’s chairperson.

He explains among the immediate needs in this added support are better enforcement of livestock movement controls, enhanced vaccination programmes against FMD, traceability systems to be put in place, and for there to be coordinated communication strategies.

Stephen Butt, SAPPO’s chairperson, says: “The world has changed and we need to design an animal health protection system that works.”

Peter-John Hassard, Kwanalu’s president, says: “We have met as the KZN livestock and wildlife industry to see what can be done together. We are committed to finding solutions as soon as possible. Our thoughts are with the farmers, workers and rural families already affected by this crisis.”