Dr Peter Oberem, founder, shareholder and managing director of Afrivet, writes:
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) released a statement on Monday 8 January that confirms that laboratory results tested positive for Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in cattle in the Vhembe district of Limpopo.
The department is calling on all farmers away from the affected area to implement strict bio-security measures. The FMD virus is highly contagious and can be spread easily on shoes, vehicles, people and animals that move or are moved; the biosecurity measures must be applied to any object, animal or person coming from the infected area and has to be strictly enforced by all farmers who want to survive this challenge.
The department further advised farmers not to allow any new animals into their herds, and to minimise the movement of their own herds to other farms. Bringing in any animals, especially cloven-hooved ones from outside, always carries the risk of introducing the virus. Because the virus is so contagious, it is important to disinfect all vehicles (especially tyres of such vehicles animals were transported in from infected areas), equipment and people, especially shoes, overalls and gloves with an approved disinfectant.
According to the statement the samples were collected during a disease inves-tigation after reports of cattle with lameness were received.
A team of experts from the department and the Limpopo Veterinary Services is on the ground conducting further investigations to verify the results and determine the extent of the outbreak, as well as its source which has since been confirmed through sophisticated serotyping at Onderstepoort, as buffalo derived SAT2 serotype from the Kruger National Park. As Vhembe is not too far from Zimbabwe, where FMD is rife in the cattle herds with no buffalo involvement, the fear was that the disease had come from there, in which case the impact would have been that much greater and control that much more difficult.
The department has reported the outbreak to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) which resulted in South Africa’s FMD-free status being temporarily suspended. The consequential result of this outbreak means that farmers in South Africa have lost their trading ability for meat and other agricultural produce including wool. This in effect can have a significant impact on farmers’ operational activities and South Africa’s agricultural sector.”
Stock owners might remember that after the FMD outbreak in Kwa-Zulu Natal in 2011, South Africa lost its FMD-free status with the OIE. As a result, more than 700 game harvesters as part of the game meat export value chain lost their jobs.
After the SA Veterinary Services had declared that outbreak as under control, the OIE restored our FMD-free status.
Unfortunately, the EU was not as easily convinced and until today it still prevents the importation of meat from South Africa. At least in that region, this outbreak and loss of status has little additional impact. However, a number of beef exporters have recently invested heavily in beef exporting to other parts of the world from South Africa.
In 2016 South Africa became a nett-exporter of beef for the first time and these entrepreneurs have now been dealt a heavy blow.
It is very pleasing that the SA Veterinary Services and the DAFF are far more open minded and have formed a task team with the National Animal Health Forum (NAHF) to tackle all aspects of this outbreak, its control and the future lifting of the ban. This is a major break-through.
Professors Gavin Thompson and Koos Coetzer, in association with Afrivet, are continuously advocating to amend the FMD control measures as implemented on an international level by the OIE and continuously influence the OIE and other world authorities to consider the concept of commodity-based trade. Currently the FMD is regulated based on geographical classifications of whether a country or region is FMD-free or not. This means that the banning or elimination of importing and exporting activities of a product are based on proof that thát area is free of FMD, not on the safety of the product to be exported.
The benefits of a commodity-based regulation means that a product, for example processed or tinned meat, can be exported from an FMD area.
Cooked and or tinned meat is free of the virus due to heat sterilization, while deboned and properly matured meat will be FMD free as the maturation causes the pH of the meat to fall below the levels at which the virus can survive.
These processes only need to be validated and certified.
Research studies to develop an independent system that will determine if a product is FMD free and certified as such even though it originates from an FMD area are currently underway.
FMD is a severe, highly contagious viral disease which affects livestock with significant economic impact. The disease affects cattle, pigs (domestic and wild), sheep, goats, and other cloven-hoofed animals.
Any suspected case of the disease in animals must be reported to the local State Veterinarian immediately.
The disease does not affect human beings.
