The critical shortage of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine is creating mounting pressure on farmers as calving season is around the corner. While the crisis worsens, farmers are losing calves and herds are increasingly weakened.
A farmer in the eastern Free State informed the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) that more than 50% of his calves died within the first two weeks after birth. These losses are a severe financial blow for farming operations, resulting in enormous financial and emotional strain on farming families.
According to experts, the only solution is to make massive quantities of vaccine available and inoculate the entire South African herd within eight weeks.
A decentralised approach, along with the necessary political will, is crucial. Government’s administrative processes and centralised control are delaying the vaccine roll-out. Farmers should have direct access to the vaccine, which will enable them to take swift and practical steps to vaccinate and protect their own herds at grass-roots level.
Reports that vaccinated cattle have become infected again, while the Department of Agriculture’s roll-out is proceeding slowly and without urgency, raise serious questions about how the crisis is being managed.
Government should do everything in its power to expedite the process by allowing more collaboration with private veterinarians and agricultural organisations so that the vaccine can be made more readily available at grass-roots level.
If the disaster is not managed more efficiently soon, South Africa will pay a very high price in the form of large-scale livestock deaths and rising food inflation.
Every day of delay costs farmers money and jeopardises the survival of the Free State’s agricultural community.
