Five new cases of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) have been confirmed on the RMIS system in North West and Gauteng.
By Alani Janeke, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad
Two of the new cases are from the Orkney area in North West. These cases were uploaded to the RMIS system, which lists active and possible cases, three weeks ago.
Cases where a possible outbreak is suspected, but for which blood tests are awaited, are loaded onto the system with orange circles. Confirmed and active cases are marked in red.
According to the RMIS, new cases were also confirmed this week in the districts of Bronkhorstspruit, Delmas and Nigel.
Cases where the disease is suspected are reported near Vergeleë and Ventersdorp in North West, as well as near Cullinan outside Pretoria in Gauteng. Several possible cases are also reported in eastern KwaZulu-Natal between Newcastle, Dannhauser, Glencoe and Babanango.
Also read: FMD: More than 250 outbreaks reported this year
Dewald Olivier, CEO of the RMIS, confirmed to African Farming last week that there is a backlog of about a month in laboratories for testing blood samples, because such a large number of blood tests have been received.
The RMIS has offered its assistance to the laboratories, which has been accepted. Additional capacity is being provided to, among other things, help capture the data from the tests and process the blood samples more quickly.
According to Olivier, the RMIS FMD Control Centre maintains good cooperation with the government, specifically state veterinarians.
Meanwhile, a report by the National Department of Agriculture’s Directorate for Animal Health indicates 255 cases of foot-and-mouth disease were reported in South Africa from January 1 to July 31 this year.
According to the report, 19 cases were resolved this year after the disease was eradicated from the affected premises.
