Manufacturers of dairy products still have no clarity on how unprocessed milk from healthy cows that have been preventively vaccinated against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) should be handled. Cheese production is one of the potential problem areas.
By Carien Kruger, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad
Dr Mark Chimes, veterinary adviser at Milk South Africa, says current policy requires that all vaccinated cows be placed under quarantine. This has major implications for milk processors, he says, because milk from quarantined herds must be double-pasteurised or used to produce long-life or powdered milk. If the existing policy is not changed, small processors and farmers who are too far from processing facilities and cannot apply these processes will have to close their doors.
For large processors that are able to comply, this entails significant effort and high costs. Moreover, cheese cannot be made from double-pasteurised milk.
There is great confusion in the market, Chimes says. “Milk processors phone me every day to ask what the policy is going to be so they can prepare. It is extremely frustrating that we simply do not know.
“We cannot put the country’s entire cattle herd under quarantine. This would mean the whole country would be under quarantine for 12 months, and no dairy or meat products could be exported.”
Also read: FMD | Lactalis SA backs producers amid new outbreaks
It’s Not International Policy
The policy of placing healthy, vaccinated cattle under quarantine “comes from a bygone era – a time when South Africa was free of FMD and only animals in areas near the Kruger National Park and in northern KwaZulu-Natal were vaccinated”, Chimes says.
This is the policy in South Africa, but it is not required by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).
“Most importing countries also accept products from animals vaccinated against FMD, provided the animals did not have the disease. The policy must be adapted to the new situation before countrywide vaccination begins. This should have happened yesterday.”
He says he has raised the issue repeatedly, but has received no feedback from the authorities.
Obviously, a herd in which FMD has been diagnosed will be placed under quarantine, he says, either before or after vaccination.
The same uncertainty exists about what will apply after countrywide vaccination with regard to the slaughter of healthy, vaccinated cattle. Current policy stipulates that animals with FMD may only be slaughtered at approved abattoirs, and there are a limited number of them. These abattoirs also lose their export status.
DIVA Vaccines
Chimes says it is understandable that the state is currently concerned that if animals are tested for FMD, it will not be possible to determine whether antibodies found are the result of infection or vaccination.
“The standards the dairy industry is calling for are that all vaccines used should be DIVA (differentiating infected from vaccinated animals) vaccines.
“The current vaccine from the Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI) is not DIVA-registered, but those from the Agricultural Research Council, as well as the Dollvet vaccine from Türkiye and the Biogénesis Bagó vaccine from Argentina, are.”
He adds that DIVA vaccines can sometimes test false-positive for FMD.
Also read: FMD | SA’s Ayrshire dairy farmers’ desperate fight to save their herds
Food Safety
Chimes says the reason milk from an FMD-infected dairy herd is double-pasteurised or used to produce long-life milk is to kill the virus and prevent the disease from being spread through the product.
In the meantime, Milk SA is working with the Dairy Standards Agency and Prof Francois Maree of the Centre for Viral Zoonoses in the Department of Medical Virology at the University of Pretoria to make a submission to the state on the production of yoghurt and maas using milk from infected cows in quarantine.
For these two products, the raw milk is pasteurised once, after which it undergoes a process in which it is heated for longer at a higher temperature than during pasteurisation. Through the submission, they aim to demonstrate that this process is equivalent to, or even better than, the minimum standards.
Also watch: ‘There is life after foot-and-mouth disease’ – Eastern Cape dairy farmer
