Although a KwaZulu-Natal mayor’s plea for the police and army to urgently step in to halt the rapid spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) into the province’s Midlands area is well meant, it comes too late. There is already a suspected case in the region’s Mooi River district.
By Lloyd Phillips, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad
Even if the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government, or even the national government, were to now suddenly heed already long-ignored calls for the likes of a disaster declaration, and for dedicated police and army resources, to stop the spread of FMD across the whole province, it would be too late.
The KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Union (Kwanalu) has been pleading with the provincial government since May to have FMD declared a provincial disaster. Such a declaration would have unlocked significant state resources to immensely bolster the state’s efforts since 2021 to stop this disease’s ongoing spread across the province and even beyond.
“Our efforts were to no avail,” says Angus Williamson, vice-president of Kwanalu and chairperson of the KwaZulu-Natal Red Meat Producers’ Organisation (RPO).
More recently, Chris Pappas, mayor of the uMngeni Local Municipality (uMngeni), publicly made an urgent plea to Thami Ntuli, the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, and to Thembeni KaMadlopha-Mthethwa, MEC of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, to urgently call on the police and even the army to stop the potential spread of FMD into the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.
Pappas’ plea pointed out that central and southern KwaZulu-Natal are hubs of the province’s immensely valuable and important dairy industry. Unlike with most beef cattle, dairy cattle can experience such terrible symptoms of FMD that the only option remaining is to euthanise them.
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The Wolf is at the Door
It is estimated that there are approximately 100 000 dairy cattle in central and southern KwaZulu-Natal and, until recently, their owners had miraculously been able to keep the FMD wolf from the door.
Now there is a suspected infection on a commercial dairy farm on the outskirts of the Creighton district. There are suspected infections in the Ixopo and Richmond districts. On Tuesday, a suspected infection was reported on a beef farm in the Mooi River district.
Although these suspected infections still need to be confirmed through blood test results, it may now unofficially be perceived that almost the entire KwaZulu-Natal is an infection zone for FMD.
Williamson says: “The unfortunate reality is that foot-and-mouth has beaten the state. It has beaten them [as] it is all over the province. It is all over the country.
“We as Kwanalu and the KZN RPO warned the state that this was going to happen because of no access or limited access to markets for livestock owners within KwaZulu-Natal’s foot-and-mouth disease management area and because of no control over the illegal movements of livestock.
“That foot-and-mouth was confirmed in the Western Cape just proves there is no control of livestock movements. We must accept the fact that foot-and-mouth is endemic to the country, and that the sooner we can pre-emptively vaccinate with the right vaccine, the better. That is our only hope.”
A statement by the Mooi-Mpofana Agricultural Association’s disease and biosecurity committee commended the beef farmer for promptly notifying animal health authorities and the entire district surrounding his farm of his suspicions of FMD among his cattle. There are several dairy farms in this district.
“Please do not panic. As a precaution, we ask that no cattle be moved out of the 5km radius of the [suspected infected] property.
“We also ask that all farmers within this radius remain extremely vigilant and extra cautious.”
WATCH: FMD | MPO buys 50 000 vaccines for dairy farmers
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FMD | KZN farmers set up their own control points (and more to follow)
