Eastern Cape farmers urge faster Foot-and-Mouth vaccine rollout

Cows seen during a Foot-and-Mouth vaccination drive.

Local farmers in the Eastern Cape are calling for an accelerated sourcing and distribution of foot and mouth vaccine, as they count their losses and possible crippling of their pockets due to the outbreak, which has now been pronounced a national disaster.

The farmers fear that reliance on vaccines produced solely by the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) might slow down the pace at which the vaccines come to their regions.

Small village farmers, such as Mhlobo Mbane, who is a member of the African Farmers Association of South Africa fears that the prolonged method planned by the government will arrive late as they are already seeing job and cattle losses.

“ We are already panicking; no, we have to fork out a lot of money buying vaccines whilst we are still waiting for the government to supply. Now there is supply or manufacturing that is happening at the ARC, although it is not something that is actually huge, so we are worried about the capacity until the government actually engages, sits down and has a clear plan on how we are going to engage and monitor it.”

We’ve been pushing for urgent, large-scale vaccination to protect our national herd from Foot-and-Mouth Disease and that work is now accelerating on the ground.

We will continue working with farmers and industry to contain FMD and defend South Africa’s food security. 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/LRUmeOgTHa

— John Steenhuisen MP (@jsteenhuisen) February 15, 2026