Red Meat Industry Services (RMIS) announced on Thursday that a new court action filed by private veterinary organisations is delaying the rollout of critical foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) control measures, including vaccination programmes, during what the industry body describes as a crucial outbreak response period.
By Maile Matsimela, digital editor at African Farming
The court action explicitly opposes the RMIS traceability platform and argues that vaccination costs should be borne by the State rather than producers. RMIS maintains the platform was developed “by the value chain, for the value chain” to support animal movement, vaccination and continued trading under FMD conditions.
According to the statement, the platform is designed for coordination and providing systems to enable the value chain; not to regulate or police veterinarians or replace statutory authorities.
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Industry Warns of Value Chain Disruption
RMIS expressed concern that state-controlled vaccine supply would cause allocation delays and prevent direct access to vaccines. The organisation argues this would impede producers, feedlots, abattoirs and broader livestock sectors including dairy and pork operations.
The industry body stated that delays will affect animal movement, throughput and market supply across the entire value chain during the FMD response.
RMIS questioned whether all members of RuVASA, a named veterinary group involved in the legal action, were consulted before the court application was filed. The organisation raised concerns about representation and alignment within the veterinary community regarding the legal challenge.
Also read: Court gives government final deadline on FMD policy
Impact Across Livestock Sectors
The delay in implementing control measures is expected to prevent producers from accessing vaccines to protect their herds and selling livestock to relieve on-farm pressure. Feedlots would be unable to maintain operations at full capacity, while abattoirs face reduced throughput and disrupted product flow to market.
RMIS warned that the court action adds pressure across the system at a time when vaccination is needed to enable movement and restore flow through the producer-feedlot-abattoir chain.
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