Industry role players have beef with parts of strategy

Southern African Agri Initiative (Saai) board chair Theo de Jager welcomes the minister of agriculture’s plan to vaccinate the entire national herd.

- Marizka Coetzer

“This brave political announcement should trigger the process to get proper control over a disastrous disease, which has spread like wildfire, contaminating dairies in KwaZulu-Natal with new outbreaks reported on a daily basis over the last week or two.

“It also triggers a lot of questions. Where do we start and how? Who will do it? Botswana's vaccine manufacturer will be closed until late January,” he said.

De Jager said that while the minister announced that the oil-based vaccine will be imported from Türkiye and that they can deliver a million doses per month, Saai estimated that farmers need to vaccinate about 14 million head of cattle at least twice so 28 million doses are needed.