SA ramps up FMD vaccinations amid rising cases, with calls for better tracking systems and urgent local vaccine manufacturing.
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a crisis and the government is acting decisively, says Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen.
He said the agriculture department’s concrete actions include aggressive vaccination with what he describes as the largest inoculation strategy yet.
“In June and August, Onderstepoort Biological Products received a total of 901 200 doses of vaccines to the value of over R70 million bought from the Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI).
Govt rolls out its largest foot-and-mouth disease vaccination campaign
“In October 2025, a total of 644 000 doses of FMD SAT-strain vaccine arrived from the BVI. More doses will be delivered before the end of the year.”
The department is working on improved structures by establishing a government-industry task team and doing a system overhaul, where the department was focusing on the long term by tightening animal identification systems and expanding diagnostic capabilities.
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In the meantime, Sparta Beef has confirmed that laboratory test results received on samples collected from its cattle feeding facility in Marquard on 7 November tested positive for FMD.
It further said samples collected from Sparta’s Alma farm, located in the Clocolan district, also tested positive.
All cattle on this farm have subsequently been vaccinated.
FMD not been declared endemic
Red Meat Industry Services CEO Dewald Olivier said FMD has not been declared endemic, but it has become widespread and continues to spread due to the movement of infected animals.
“This has led many to question whether it is time to shift from an outbreak containment vaccination policy to a broader, regionally or provincially coordinated vaccination strategy,” he said.
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Southern African Agri Initiative CEO Francois Rossouw said canyon fever has now also broken out in the Northern Cape.
“We have several outbreaks of FMD and we are still not sure exactly how many cases we have. Now we have canyon fever.
“All of this comes down to us urgently starting local vaccine production,” he said.
