South Africa Ramps Up Vaccinations Against Spreading Livestock Diseases

Editorial: reda El ghazal

South Africa is boosting vaccinating stocks and expanding inoculations as foot-and-mouth disease intensifies across five provinces, agriculture officials confirm, responding to serious threats to the national beef supply. This highly contagious virus targets cattle and other cloven-hoofed animals, with KwaZulu-Natal province experiencing the most severe impact. The government has urgently ordered over 900,000 vaccine doses, expecting the first delivery next week, aiming not just to control current outbreaks but also to build lasting defences against future risks.

Meanwhile, a major outbreak at Karan Beef, the country’s largest feedlot located near Johannesburg, forces a quarantine on the facility that processes around 2,000 cattle daily, directly impacting beef availability. This significant disruption fuels growing demands from cattle producers for the government to declare a formal state of disaster, granting it broader powers to intervene and shield the industry from devastating financial losses. Adding pressure, key export markets including China, Namibia, and Zimbabwe have banned South African beef products due to the outbreaks.

Further complicating recovery, the livestock sector faces dual crises while still reeling from 2023’s devastating avian flu that wiped out a third of the national chicken flock. To prevent a repeat of this highly pathogenic bird flu, known for its rapid spread and high mortality, the government has just announced South Africa’s first ever mass poultry vaccination campaign, signalling a critical shift towards proactive disease management across its vital agricultural industries.