Foot-and-mouth disease wreaks havoc in SA

THE foot-and-mouth disease outbreak that has devastated South Africa's agriculture, has raised urgent concerns for farmers.

- TASCHICA PILLAY

A CATASTROPHIC outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease continues to devastate farms in South Africa. | Reuters

(Reuters)

Considered the worst outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in recent years, the implications are dire, with prices for red meat and dairy products set to surge.

FMD isa highly contagious disease of all cloven hoofed animals and South Africa lost its FMD-free status in 2019.

The outbreak started in 2021 when animals moved from Phalaborwa to KwaZulu-Natal.

Farmers like Angus Williamson, vice president of the KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Union (Kwanalu), have blamed government negligence for the crisis.

He said it was a catastrophe which could have been prevented.

“As organised agriculture we engaged with government since 2021 when the outbreak was in Mtubatuba and it took them a year to get vaccinations done in that area. The government is fully to blame because they were warned.

“The losses are into the millions. Some dairy farmers have lost between R6 and 8 million. That is monstrous. With the new wave of foot and mouth disease there are farmers who have lost up to 200 to 250 calves from Tiger heart sydrome which is a secondary infection from foot and mouth. That is a loss of R2.8 million, which a Free State farmer had because of calves he could not sell,” said Williamson.

He added that the price of red meat will go up and milk will be more scarce.

“You cannot expect the production to drop by 30 to 40% on the milk side and not expect to have an impact on dairy products.

“Red meat is going to become more scarce and expensive. We cannot sell animals now because the sales have all closed due to the challenges of foot and mouth disease.