By Michelle van der Spuy
If a new outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is confirmed in the North West, it will be very bad – for the province’s red meat producers and for the red meat market, says Frikkie Mare, CEO of the Red Meat Producers’ Organisation.
North West was declared foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) free last year. However, suspected positive cases of foot-and-mouth disease are currently being investigated at a feedlot in Ventersdorp as well as an abattoir in Brits where the feedlot’s animals are slaughtered. However, these cases can only be confirmed by the Department of Agriculture after they have been declared to the World Organisation for Animal Health.
“We all know it’s bad – it’s bad for the market, it’s bad for the producers, it’s bad for everyone.”
This comes shortly after the outbreak at Karan Beef’s Heidelberg feedlot sent shockwaves through the country.
Ripple effect on the market
Mare says it is not good that outbreaks continue to spread rapidly – also to feedlots where an outbreak has an impact on the entire red meat market.
“If foot-and-mouth disease breaks out on a farm, it is very bad for those producers as well as everyone within a 10km radius of it. However, if an outbreak occurs at a feedlot, it has an impact on the larger market.”
In addition to trade partners being able to close their markets for South African red meat, it also immediately reduces demand for weaner calves. According to him, the fact that foot-and-mouth disease is now increasingly occurring at feedlots has led to more urgency around the situation and the fight against the further spread of the disease is currently being fought harder than ever.
“We are not just looking at how to tackle the current crisis; that urgency has always been there. The urgency is now rather about what needs to be done in the future. It is clear that the current regulations are not good enough and we need to have new plans ready – either to control it, which we can already see is terribly difficult, or to live with it.”
Must discuss plans with market first
He says it is particularly important to put plans in place that ensure market access is maintained, even when outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease occur. Coming up with new plans, however, is not something that will happen overnight.
“We are now at the point where we realise the current regulations are not going to save us. However, introducing new plans will not be ready within the next two or three weeks. If you consider going from compartmental vaccination to being a country without foot-and-mouth disease but with vaccinations, it is a long process.
“We will have to talk to our trading partners about plans and whether it will be acceptable before it is introduced, but at least we will then have a plan for the medium term.”
Although foot-and-mouth disease is not the most dangerous disease that occurs in livestock, it certainly has a much greater economic impact than more serious diseases such as brucellosis.
“Foot-and-mouth disease, the disease itself, is not dangerous. There has never been an animal that has died from foot-and-mouth disease. They get sick and get well again. Foot-and-mouth disease is not the threat; market access is. The fact that you are cutting the economic throats of producers and feedlots is our problem.”
Also read:
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