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Cattle in an enclosure.
Red Meat Industry Services (RMIS) CEO Dewald Olivier has called for the improved containment of infectious diseases in the agriculture industry.
This follows a fresh outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in the Moqhaka local municipality near Kroonstad, Free State.
The Department of Agriculture earlier this month announced the successful containment of the disease in parts of the Eastern Cape and Limpopo and lifted disaster management area restrictions that have been in place in some areas.
Olivier warns that unless containment efforts are effectively enforced, the agriculture industry may suffer additional setbacks.
“We’re not going to eradicate foot and mouth disease within the South African context, and for that matter, in Africa. We need to manage the disease, and I think our management needs to be better rather than to have the focus on trying to eradicate it.”
“Eradication is not going to happen with porous borders. And unfortunately, we haven’t done enough research in the past 15 to 20 years on our diseases because our diseases have definitely evolved,” adds Olivier.
PODCAST | Full interview with Red Meat Industry Services CEO Dewald Olivier:
