Steenhuisen receives first batch of foot and mouth vaccines
Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen has received South Africa’s first major consignment of one million high-potency Foot-and-Mouth Disease vaccines from Argentina at the OR Tambo International Airport.
This consignment will supplement the existing monthly stock from the Botswana Vaccine Institute and upcoming shipments from Turkey.
Biogenesis Bago expects to ship five million more doses by the end of March.
Steenhuisen says the country is now better equipped to respond to the outbreaks.
“We vaccinated the largest number of animals in our history last year, where 2 million vaccines were administered. Where there was an issue was the fact that our sole vaccine supplier had to shut their factory for a period over December and that meant it disrupted our supply. What did we do? We went and found other vaccines in other parts of the world, fast-tracked them through a sovereign process and we’re now receiving the first million of those doses. There’ll be another million and a half next week, another million after that and then from the middle of March, we’ll be able to get five million doses from Biogenesis Bago alone,” says Steenhuisen.
We have received the first batch of 1 million Foot-and-Mouth Disease vaccines at OR Tambo International Airport.
This is a major breakthrough in our efforts to protect the national herd, farmers, and jobs.
This delivery is part of a phased national rollout, more will follow. pic.twitter.com/JzqjZe5Ru8
— John Steenhuisen MP (@jsteenhuisen) February 21, 2026