State vet urges police to clamp down on illegal movement

Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) within the KZN Disease Management Area (DMA) is still a serious concern, but the situation is stable, according to state vet, Wandile Ngwenya.

At a meeting held at the Amajuba SAPS Cluster office on April 10, Ngwenya updated farmers, law enforcement officials and private security personnel from both the Amajuba and Umzinyathi Districts on the spread of the disease and what is being done to contain it.

The World Organisation for Animal Health describes FMD as a severe, highly contagious viral disease of livestock that has a significant economic impact.

ALSO READ: Map of the Disease Management Area shows where FMD outbreak is being managed

This sometimes fatal disease causes fever and blister-like sores in the mouth and hooves which, if they rupture, can lead to lameness.

Ngwenya advises that biosecurity and movement control are the most important weapons to fight the disease and he is confident that, if this is properly implemented, the disease can be contained.

In the meantime, Ngwenya and his team are requesting the Head of the KZN Department of Agriculture to stop all auctions in the DMA, saying, “We can’t have live auctions while we have an active infection.”

He explained that he suspected some of the positive cases of FMD may have arisen at an auction that took place in Utrecht on February 13.

The first clinical signs of FMD in the Amajuba District were reported to the state vet on February 17, four days after the auction was held. Ngwenya has since learned that a heifer purchased at the Utrecht auction is now showing clinical signs of FMD.

The farm that purchased the heifer, located close to the R34, has since been placed under quarantine with arrangements being made to have all the livestock on that farm vaccinated for FMD.

“We’ve had to do tracing from that auction. Most of the sellers came from Amajuba District, but some of those cattle ended up in Winterton and Ladysmith,” cautioned Ngwenya.

Due to animal movement that occurred at the Utrecht auction, the Department of Agriculture has also placed a feedlot (2 020 animals) under quarantine and ensured that every animal at the feedlot was vaccinated against FMD.

Outside of the DMA, a case of FMD was confirmed positive at a farm in the Lennoxton area (Newcastle) where 180 animals were vaccinated. “We are now monitoring for the cessation of clinical signs before we can see how fast we can get these animals out to slaughter,” Ngwenya reported.

While the National Department of Agriculture initially considered including the entire Amajuba District (Newcastle, Dannhauser and Utrecht) within the DMA, a risk-based approach was implement instead.

“The properties on the Normandien side, and those to the North of R34 are well-fenced off. If we pick up FMD in a farm on those areas, we can treat that farm as a unit and deal with it without affecting trade on the neighbouring farms,” explained Ngwenya. “However, this is impossible in the area which we included in the DMA. Here, it is village after village. There are no fences, so continual spread of the disease in a problem.”

Areas identified as high risk for illegal movement of animals out of and through the DMA are the intersection where the Osizweni Road meets the R34 to Utrecht, as well as the border between Dannhauser and Dundee.

“We have vaccinated livestock at Dannhauser, but if the vaccine takes longer to generate enough immunity to stop the disease, the farmers on the border between Dannhauser and Dundee will be at risk,” Ngwenya cautioned. “The intersection of the Osizweni Road and the R34 is critical. Movement from this area is high risk and this intersection makes illegal movement possible to Emadlangeni, Vryheid and Ingogo.”

Farmers fear that the biggest risk in terms of the illegal movement of livestock will present itself in the winter months when rivers are low enough to make crossing possible.

While the Normandien Farmers Association has set up checkpoints at locations that are considered high risk in terms of the illegal movement of livestock in the Normandien area, SAPS is still in the process of setting up check points in the areas identified by Ngwenya.

Amajuba District police commissioner, General Fred Alexander, has offered additional resources to stations that are struggling to set up check points.

Farmers expressed their discontent at the fact that the animal in which the first clinical signs of FMD was detected was never quarantined.

“If we just focus on one animal when dealing with FMD, we have lost the battle. We had to think of the entire area. In communal grazing areas, you can issue a quarantine notice to an owner, and say this animal should not meet with others, but where is it going to graze? We needed to contain the entire area, not just think about one animal,” explained Ngwenya.

“The only reason we are saying that the first case was that one was because we saw it. Chances are many other animals were already infected in the area. That is why we went in there, and instead of thinking of just one animal, we quarantined the whole area and began vaccinating. If you just focus on one animal when you are dealing with FMD, you’ve lost the battle. We had to think of the entire area. You can deal with one animal where a case of FMD is detected in an area where the animals are separated by fences. In the communal grazing areas in Osizweni and Madadeni, it is impossible. We would be wasting our time,” he concluded.

Farmers praised Ngwenya for his effort in combatting FMD. A team of just one state vet and nine technicians had vaccinated 42 000 animals in just 10 days.

The news provided to you in this link has been investigated and compiled by the editorial staff of the Newcastle Advertiser, a sold newspaper distributed in the Newcastle area. 

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