The Red Meat Producers Organization (RPO) says the foot and mouth outbreak is more of an economic crisis than an animal health crisis.

It says that while the state-led vaccination programme has kicked off, much more needs to be done to provide market access to affected farmers through foot and mouth certified abattoirs.

Frikkie Mare of the RPO says they are losing money, “We need to sell our animals to feed lots. This is that time of the year that we usually generate our income and now everything halts to a standstill. So, the big issue is basically an economic crisis and not so much an animal disease or animal health crisis. So, let’s say for an example in North West, even if you have received your vaccines and the animals was vaccinated and you can start to slaughter them, it has no registered abattoir for slaughters close to you.”

Director of Veterinary Services in the North West Dr Langa Madyibi says vaccinating every animal in the province will not be an easy task.

“It’s not desirable to have every animal in the province vaccinated. Vaccination is done for the purpose of reducing the viral load and decreasing the spread of the virus. Our starting point is going to be cases that have been confirmed. So, these will be the index farms which involve feedlots. There’s going to be different categories of vaccinations, we are going to vaccinate in some facilities to slaughter and some may decide to vaccinate but for keeps.”

The country is battling the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, threatening shortage of beef and possible higher prices. Government says over 900 000 animals will be vaccinated in all areas that the department has prioritised.

Government has moved to calm the concerns of consumers, saying the disease does not affect humans in anyway.

Efforts to control the foot and mouth disease outbreak