South Africa has spent over R72 million on about 900 000 doses of vaccines for the Foot and Mouth disease outbreak since March this year.
The government is now prioritising measures to manufacture locally produced FMD vaccines to respond quicker to outbreaks and prevent economic devastation for many agricultural stakeholders.
Various stakeholders, led by the Department of Agriculture and the Agriculture Research Council, the University of Pretoria, and Onderstepoort Biological Products, are attending a two-day Foot and Mouth Indaba to find long-lasting solutions for Foot and Mouth Disease.
One of the biggest beef producers in the country, Karan Beef, has been crippled by the Foot and Mouth outbreak. They only reopened this week after suffering major financial losses.
“For two months after that, we were closed down. We have three feedlots, and our entire operations were closed down and that’s an economic destruction,” says Dr. Dirk Verwoerd, senior veterinarian at Karan Beef.
Readily available, effective vaccines could’ve prevented this devastation.
“You have to have strategic vaccines and enough of them,” Verwoerd explains.
The outbreak started in 2021 and quickly spread, affecting livestock in several provinces, increasing demand for vaccines.
South Africa currently relies on other countries, like Botswana, for vaccines, which is unsustainable and costly.
The Agriculture Research Council confirmed that great progress has been made to finalise a vaccine.
“South Africa has made great progress in vaccine development. We have a vaccine that’s now being registered for which we are finalizing some of the few trials,” says Dr Litha Magingxa, President and Chief Executive Officer of ARC.
Meanwhile government has appealed for stronger financial support, especially from the private sector, to produce locally manufactured vaccines.
