The Portfolio Committee on Agriculture provided an update on Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) interventions on Tuesday, where the allocations of vaccines and the current situation on FMD were presented.
Image: Supplied
Parliamentary's portfolio committee on agriculture provided an update on Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) interventions on Tuesday, where the allocations of vaccines and the current situation on FMD were presented.
The committee said that despite there still being current outbreaks of FMD, vaccines have been received and are being allocated.
“2.5 million FMD doses from Biogenesis Bago from Argentina have been received. A further 3.5 million doses were received in 2 batches over the past week.”
The committee added that 5.5 million doses from Dollvet (Turkey) have also been received, while a further 2 million doses are expected in early June.
“Total ordered vaccines are at 13.5 million vaccines. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority granted approval to Dollvet to import 12 million doses.”
The committee broke down the allocation of 3.5 million vaccines.
“1.5 million vaccines will be allocated to the Feedlot Industry, 500,000 to the Red Meat Producers organisation, 200,000 to the Milk Industry, and 100,000 to the stud breeders industry, while provinces will receive 1.2 million vaccines.”
The committee noted that 267,000 of the new batch of vaccines will be allocated to Mpumulanga, while Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal will receive 217,000 vaccines.
The committee also updated on the Diagnostic Expansion Capacity.
“The Agricultural Research Council is awaiting Memorandum of Agreements from KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape for the secondment of Veterinary Technologists (3 KZN; 3 EC) for training on FMD diagnostics.”
The committee added that KwaZulu-Natal (Allerton) and the Western Cape (WC) - Stellenbosch Laboratories have been assessed and are being readied for FMD diagnostics.
“Deactivation of samples at the ARC prior to sending to the KZN and WC Labs is being arranged. Both KZN and WC labs are expected to receive samples by 30 June 2026.”
The committee said that FMD testing is continuing.
“Daily FMD serology testing capacity stands at 2,200 samples, which translates to 6,600 tests per day (each of the 2,200 samples is tested three times. With the current expanded capacity, the serology test backlog is scheduled to be cleared by the middle of June 2026.”
FMD Response SA said that vaccines still need to be released to farmers following the Gauteng High Court ruling that will allow farmers to procure and administer FMD vaccines.
“Minister John Steenhuisen and the Department of Agriculture need to act without delay and release millions of FMD vaccines directly to private veterinarians so that they can administer the vaccines at farm level for all farmers.”
FMD Response SA added that South Africa is expected to receive 14 million FMD vaccines within the next three months following a recent order from Turkish manufacturer Dollvet.
“It is imperative that as many of these vaccines as possible are made directly available from the importers to private veterinarians so that they can help dramatically increase the rate of vaccination at all commercial farms. There is simply no need for the state or a third party to control vaccine distribution."
FMD Response SA said that while millions of vaccines have been imported, only at most 4.4 million or 31% of the 14 million cattle in SA have been vaccinated, revealing a clear need for the Department of Agriculture to work with the private sector to drastically speed up the roll-out of vaccination.
“We welcome new reports that more feedlots have received vaccines, but FMD Response SA exists to ensure every single farmer can access vaccines timeously, and there are hundreds of commercial farmers still waiting for vaccines.”
FMD Response SA added that there is also a misconception circulating in some quarters that the private distribution of FMD vaccines is not possible due to conditions attached to the Section 21 import permit.
“This is untrue. The import permits allow the Director of Animal Health to distribute vaccines to whomever she chooses. This has already been demonstrated.”
BUSINESS REPORT