'FMD will likely spread throughout South Africa'

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) hit the Eastern Cape for the first time this year in May and is probably going to spread throughout most of the country.

- Glenneis Kriel

This was the warning issued by Dr Ariena Shepherd, a veterinarian and farmer from Bergville in KwaZulu-Natal, to attendees of the recent National Wool Growers' Association Congress in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape.

She said the fast-spreading, highly contagious disease, which affected all cloven-hooved animals, not only led to production and animal losses, but a positive confirmation could result in a farm being quarantined for an average of a year.

FMD is an airborne disease that also spreads through contact with an infected animal. "If a cow or sheep with FMD sneezes, the virus will go into the air, the aerosols will spread and the wind will carry the virus over quite a few kilometres."