South Africa struggles with FMD
Officials in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province are trying to contain the first major outbreak of foot and mouth (FMD) disease in more than a decade.
The outbreak, confirmed by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) on 3 March, has already proved costly for the commercial farming sector and could be even more devastating to small-scale farmers.
The World Organization for Animal Health has temporarily suspended South Africa’s FMD-free international status, forcing it to ban all exports of potentially infected animal products.
Sandy La Marque, CEO of the KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Union (Kwanalu), said the epicentre of the outbreak was a highly rural area where smallholder farmers were rearing about 100,000 cattle and 2,000 goats.
The government has yet to formally declare an FMD-control area, but has begun to implement control measures, such as vaccinating uninfected animals and setting up road blocks to prevent the movement of livestock. DAFF spokesperson Selby Bokaba said there was no immediate threat of culling.
However, Dr Botlhe Modisane, a DAFF technical spokesperson, said there was a chance that farmers with asymptomatic infected animals might ignore warnings to limit the movement of livestock in certain areas, and to report suspected cases to state veterinary surgeons.
He said the outbreak has been characterized by particularly mild symptoms, which might make it difficult to diagnose infected animals, especially among the hardy Nguni cattle kept by communal farmers.
“Unfortunately, if there is no clinical manifestation of the disease, some farmers may not realise there is a problem, and we are concerned because there are so many cultural practices in the area in which we are trying to contain the disease,” said Mr Modisane.
