Eastern Cape suffers setback as Foot-and-Mouth Disease outbreak announced
“The beef industry has been focussed on opening new markets for our products over the last few years. We cannot afford to lose these export markets, as well as potential new ones, because of the risk of FMD,”
The Eastern Cape is now the fourth province that has been affected by the highly viral disease affecting cattle, Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD). Government announced that the outbreak occurred on a farm in Humansdorp.
“Having been to the Eastern Cape recently, I am concerned that the problem could be more pervasive than what it is believed to be, given a lack of evidence of biosecurity measures,” says Roelie van Reenen, supply chain executive at Beefmaster Group, a leading specialist supplier of beef products to South Africa and global markets.
He adds that it is the industry’s lack of adequate practices and biosecurity that assists this virus to spread.
“We as the industry are the only defence against FMD. The virus does not spread on its own. We as the industry spread it through negligence and our laissez-faire attitude,” says van Reenen.
According to reports, the affected farm has been placed under quarantine and a full epidemiological investigation has commenced to identify the possible origin of the virus. Surrounding areas have also been affected: The Kouga municipality announced the prohibition of movement of animals within its borders to mitigate the spread of the highly contagious viral infection.
“FMD continues to be a threat. This is due to several factors, including the movement of animals from FMD Control Zones or hotspots to other areas, a breaking of the rules and regulations, insufficient vaccination coverage, and a lack of awareness, amongst others,” explains van Reenen.
He says that all industry role-players need to take seriously their responsibility to help limit the spread of the disease as much as possible.
“Biosecurity measures have been proven to work in reducing the risk of FMD spreading, however, it only works if industry players enforce controls.”
He says that one way to do this is to limit the movement of cattle, and, when buying cattle, to insist on veterinary inspections and sign-off. “Industry players buying cattle must learn to ask the right questions regarding traceability, such as about the animals’ geographical origination. Proper due diligence is required, and scrutinising where the cattle came from before buying an animal is key.”
Van Reenen adds that many industry role players have already gone to great lengths at feedlots and farms to try to limit or prevent the outbreak of disease, for example, with the installation of bubble or isolation hubs, but there is the opportunity to do more.
“If procuring cattle from places where animals gather, one way to mitigate the potential of disease outbreak is to insist on biosecurity measures. This may include investigating the biosecurity measures that are in place at the gathering as well as insisting that cattle are quarantined for certain periods – a minimum of 28 days – and signed off as healthy and disease free by only qualified vets.”
Van Reenen says the biggest challenge is complacency and continuing as if there is no immediate threat or danger.
“We cannot continue to do business without robust biosecurity in place. It is no longer safe to rely on relationships or history and to say ‘I know where my cattle comes from because I’ve been buying from this place for many years’. No one is safe from FMD and the only way we are going to tackle it is if we are serious and accept that we need strict measures in place,” says van Reenen.
He adds that this will go a long way in protecting the beef industry, which is being touted to be a major future contributor to the red meat industry’s growth, and is expected to add more than R12 billion to South Africa’s agricultural GDP per annum by 2030.
“The beef industry has been focussed on opening new markets for our products over the last few years. We cannot afford to lose these export markets, as well as potential new ones, because of the risk of FMD,” says van Reenen, adding that outbreaks such as these place our country under scrutiny.
Recently Beefmaster Group announced that South African beef is now available on the shelves of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This after a landmark agreement between South Africa and the Kingdom was signed in 2022.
“Currently 4% of our country’s beef is being exported and increasing this would be very beneficial for the agricultural industry. The beef industry is in a slump and the entire industry needs to work together to unlock more export opportunities,” concludes van Reenen.
