Cattle vaccination underway at the Colbourne Diary farm near Mooi River. FMD Response SA said the key issue is not the quality of the vaccines, but the speed, scale and synchronisation of the rollout.
FMD Response SA has called for urgent clarity on South Africa’s foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccination strategy, warning that the current rollout approach risks failing to contain the virus unless it is aligned with the biological realities of the disease.
The industry body on Wednesday raised concerns following remarks made by Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen during Friday’s agriculture budget vote, where he indicated that government aims to achieve an 80% vaccination rate by the end of the year and that booster shots would be required six months after the first vaccination round.
Spokesperson Andrew Morphew said if government intends to vaccinate cattle over the course of the year and then administer boosters six months later, the campaign timing would undermine the effectiveness of the programme.
“If the goal is to vaccinate the country’s cattle once and then offer a booster after six months, then the first vaccination round cannot run until December,” Morphew said.
