Dairy industry experts have now highlighted the importance of strict milking hygiene protocols - including doubling down on sustainable practices across the milk handling value chain, mass vaccination protocols, and thorough equipment cleaning.
South Africa has been battling to contain a disruptive outbreak of FMD, with key dairy and beef producing provinces such as KwaZulu Natal and Mpumalanga still affected among others. There are worries and concerns that the disease could spread to neighboring countries such as Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique among others, heavily impacting dairy sectors there.
The outbreak of FMD in South Africa has shone the spotlight on the importance of biosecurity across Africa’s dairy industry. In the African dairy context, poor and lax biosecurity protocols “lead to lower milk yields, higher treatment costs, and reduced consumer trust,” a spokesperson for FrieslandCampina, a global dairy company that works with dairy farmers in Nigeria, told us by email.
These factors impact on profitability and safety of the dairy industry, they added.
For its dairy sector value chain development in Nigeria, FrieslandCampina WAMCO has developed a “robust milk collection network that ensures hygienic handling and traceability” from farm to factory. Moreover, it has spearheaded Farmer2Farmer missions that allow Dutch farmers to share practical biosecurity knowledge with Nigerian farmers.
The company says it is important that only milk from healthy animals is accepted for processing into dairy products and emphasised that African dairy value chain companies can learn from global practices in handling and containing biosecurity threats such as outbreak of diseases.
During the FMD outbreak in Germany, FrieslandCampina suspended farm visits, enhanced hygiene protocols, and maintained supply chain integrity – practices that can be adapted across Africa. “Monitoring systems and rapid response plans developed with local authorities also play a key role,” said the company.
Ecowize South Africa, which specializes in farm biosecurity and food safety services in the country, said strong adherence to strict biosecurity in the dairy sector is “the backbone of any healthy dairy” industry.
“Bio-security keeps disease out, protects your animals, and keeps milk flowing. Once an outbreak hits, the damage is far worse than the effort it takes to prevent it,” Ilze Els, a spokesperson for the company, said in an interview.
Els added that keeping control of who and what comes onto the farm, quarantining new or sick animals, sticking to your vaccination plans for dairy cows, keeping milking areas clean, and record keeping were critical basic standards for upholding bio-security protocols in the African dairy sector.
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“You’ll see the impact of lax biosecurity across the value chain from the farms in lower milk yields, more mastitis cases, higher treatment costs, and even rejected milk. Weak bio-security leads to lower income and can even lead to closing the dairy,” explained Els.
The current FMD outbreak in South Africa was worrisome for dairy producers in the country and the region as it has the potential to spiral out of control. Els said FMD impacts trade within the dairy sector and curbs milk flow, with some farms currently not affected still bearing impacts from knock-on effects.
To control FMD, South Africa has been urged to limit movement, clean and disinfect properly, report quickly, and follow vet guidance on vaccination.
Veterinary and dairy farming experts from the Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers (ZADF) and the Department of Veterinary Services under the Ministry of Agriculture of Zimbabwe, told this publication that “the importance of bio-security has become even more evident with the growing threat of disease outbreaks and the need to ensure the sustainability of dairy farming” operations across the region.
Extension and field project manager for ZADF, Gerald Chivete, told us that improved bio-security practices have had positive impact on both the quantity and quality of milk production in Zimbabwe’s dairy sector.
“Routine milking hygiene such as udder washing, teat disinfection and equipment sanitisation has significantly reduced mastitis prevalence, thereby lowering somatic cell counts and bacterial contamination. This has improved milk shelf life and quality grades accepted by dairy processors,” he said.
Nonetheless, the FMD outbreak in South Africa represents a “continuing regional bio-security concern, making coordinated cross-border disease control essential for protecting” the Zimbabwean and regional dairy sector.
