South Africa has initiated a nationwide cattle vaccination campaign to combat a devastating foot-and-mouth disease outbreak that has affected nearly 300,000 cattle. The crisis has forced the culling of over 120,000 animals and prompted export bans from countries like China and Zambia, threatening the nation's meat and dairy industries.
HEIDELBERG, South Africa — Officials in South Africa launched a nationwide cattle vaccination initiative Friday aimed at controlling a devastating foot-and-mouth disease crisis that poses serious risks to the country’s meat, dairy, and livestock sectors.
The disease crisis, which began escalating in late 2023 and has quickly swept through South Africa’s agricultural regions, has now impacted nearly 297,000 head of cattle. Farmers have been forced to destroy more than 120,000 animals in desperate attempts to prevent further transmission.
The epidemic poses significant risks including widespread meat shortages, substantial employment losses, and revenue losses reaching millions of dollars as nations like China and Zambia have implemented bans on South African meat imports.
On Friday, Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen initiated the nation’s vaccination campaign, utilizing one million vaccine doses that recently arrived from Turkey.
Additional vaccine shipments are anticipated over the weekend, though officials express worry that current supplies fall far short of what’s needed to inoculate the country’s approximately 12 million cattle.
“The one strategy that we have ultimately adopted is the mass vaccination strategy. So we can get ahead of the foot-and-mouth disease in South Africa and ensure that we can prevent outbreaks from happening rather than reacting to outbreaks,” said Steenhuisen.
KwaZulu-Natal province along the coast has emerged as the primary center of the crisis, with more than 17,000 agricultural operations impacted. Officials have formally designated the situation as a national emergency, creating a legal mechanism that enables the government to direct emergency funding primarily toward vaccine procurement.
The country’s treasury has designated approximately $25 million to combat the outbreak, with most funds earmarked for vaccine purchases.
Agricultural producers and meat processing companies are facing severe challenges, forced to isolate infected livestock and halt all commercial activities and exports while dealing with critical vaccine shortages nationwide.
Dr. Dirk Verwoerd, a veterinary professional with South Africa’s leading meat processing company, Karan Beef, explained that the outbreak’s consequences are affecting every segment of the meat and dairy sectors.
“You have massive damage upstream and downstream,” he told The Associated Press. “You cannot purchase cows, so your primary producers now sit with them. They can’t sell, and we can’t purchase. You cannot slaughter, so the consumer pays the price.”
Karan Beef operates the nation’s largest cattle facility in Heidelberg, spanning 2,300 hectares (5,680 acres) with capacity for more than 140,000 head of cattle.
“It’s an epidemic that is out of control, completely out of control,” said Verwoerd. “Rampant infections happening in all the provinces, daily, there are just more and more reports. The first target is to get stability. And that’s why we need to vaccinate the national herd, the national population.”