This means that cattle may not be moved from one property to another during this period.
The minister also asked the public to adhere to safety measures: “I call on all citizens of South Africa to stop the illegal movement of animals out of affected areas. The damages caused by continued outbreaks have a severe negative impact on the economy of the country, as well as the individual animal owners,” she said.
The exception is cattle being moved to abattoirs for direct slaughter as well as for slaughter for ritual purposes.
“The minister recognises the major disruption that the movement ban will cause in the normal business of many sectors. For this reason, the ban is only applicable to cattle, as the movement of cattle was identified as the main cause of the continued spread of the outbreaks.
“However, the public is reminded that all cloven-hoofed animals can spread the foot-and-mouth disease virus and the movement of sheep, goats, pigs and cloven-hoofed game animals should also be handled with the necessary caution,” Reggie Ngcobo, the spokesperson for Didiza’s office, said in a statement.
The first cases in this outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease were flagged in May 2021 in KwaZulu-Natal. A second outbreak followed in March this year in Limpopo and a third was recorded in March in North West. As it stands, there are 116 recorded cases of the disease in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, North West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Free State.
FOOT AND MOUTH SITUATION- South Africa
One of the effects of the outbreak was that China banned wool imports from South Africa. This had wide implications for the market as about 80% of South Africa’s wool exports are destined for China. However, on Tuesday, Beijing decided to lift the ban.
What is foot-and-mouth disease?
Dr Temba Sikhakhane, director of veterinary services in KwaZulu-Natal, said: “It’s a viral disease and there are three types in South Africa, which are endemic to buffalos, mainly in the Kruger National Park. So, we control cattle that interact with buffalos in the Kruger National Park permanently, both in Mpumalanga and Limpopo. We monitor and vaccinate animals in these regions because we know that, from time to time, the buffalos will infect those communities.”
The disease spreads through direct and indirect contact. For direct contact to happen, animals must come into contact with another’s noses or bodily fluids, for example. Indirect contact can be through aerosol transmission – the virus can live in the nasal passages of people and be spread to animals. It can also be spread by farm equipment.
If the disease is controlled in regions with a high volume of animals with foot-and-mouth disease, why has it spread? From time to time there are people who move cattle that have been affected by the disease from one location to another and that causes the disease to swiftly move from these controlled areas to other areas.
“People will go all the way to areas like Limpopo and buy cattle because the animals are sold cheaply. They transport them to other regions, and through genetic sequencing, we find that’s how an animal from KwaZulu-Natal got foot-and-mouth,” Sikhakhane said.
Farmers all over the country are concerned about the disease reaching their farms and possibly affecting their animals. Nico Uys, a farmer in the Western Cape, said although the disease has not reached their region it is still a worry.
“We have seen what the disease does to animals. It does not kill them but we love our animals too much to see them in a sick condition,” Uys said.
Although there are no cases in the region, they are still not able to move cattle around during the 21-day ban.
Sikhakhane said the government was doing its best to secure the situation. “We’re trying but our communities are not complying. There are designated disease-management areas where people are not supposed to move animals, so you find people moving them at night.”
The minister has vowed to arrest people who are found illegally moving cattle from one area to another as they would be contravening the Animal Diseases Act, which provides measures to control animal diseases and parasites.
Exports affected
In January 2019, the World Health Organisation suspended South Africa’s foot-and-mouth disease-free status because cases kept popping up. This caused some countries to ban exports from South Africa to protect their farming industries.
China was one of the countries that ratified an import ban on cloven-hoofed animals and related products after the most recent foot-and-mouth outbreak in the country. Some say the ban cost the industry over R700-million, with 35 000 workers and 4 500 seasonal sheep shearers and wool handlers being affected.
Local agricultural organisations felt it was not necessary to begin with as foot-and-mouth disease was not rife in wool-producing areas.
“The new wool season started last week, so we are very positive that [lifting the ban] will have a good influence on the wool price. We were nervous as only half of South African wool is good enough to go to the European market. So, if the Chinese market was still closed, half of South African wool would not have reached decent prices and it would be a struggle to sell. We are very relieved that the ban has been lifted,” said Cobus Uys, chairperson of the Western Cape Wool Growers Association.
