Red meat industry reels from foot-and-mouth disease havoc

The latest outbreak of foot-andmouth disease could lead to a jobs bloodbath and threaten the viability of SA’s beef industry and the broader red meat segment, an industry body warned on Tuesday.

Foot-and-mouth is a severe, contagious, viral disease that affects livestock, causing serious production losses.

“We are now at a crisis stage as the burden of disease is threatening livelihoods and the sector’s viability,” said Louw van Reenen, spokesperson for the Red Meat and Livestock Primary Cluster and CEO of Beefmaster.

SA’s beef and the broader red meat industry is a key segment of the agricultural sector with an annual turnover of more than R80bn, and is responsible for about 500,000 jobs. But it has been hampered by regular outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in recent years, which prompted several countries to ban SA meat imports and related products.

Last week, China announced a ban on the importation of all cloven-hoofed animal goods, including wool, beef and other red meat products from SA due to the latest outbreak, which was caused by the illegal movement of animals out of controlled zones in Limpopo.

China is one of the world’s largest markets for beef products with more than 1-million tonnes of meat imported by the Asian giant annually. It also imports on average 70% of SA’s wool, which is ranked as one of the largest exportable commodities in the agricultural sector after oranges, grapes, wine and apples. Therefore the ban will hurt the local industry.

Van Reenen said companies in the broader sector have been calling for urgent intervention and wider industry participation to implement biosecurity measures, which will go a long way towards preventing further outbreaks.

Major industry players and government representatives held talks this week to come up with measures to curb the spread of the disease and limit the damage.

One of the key agreements was that the industry will assist the government with vaccination of animals in “red zones”, which are areas susceptible to livestock being infected.

“We are now permitted to get private sector vets to assist with vaccination efforts, which we have not previously been allowed to do,” Van Reenen said. “This measure will greatly alleviate the bottlenecks that are barriers in prioritising herd health within these zones.”

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the international body tasked with ensuring the sanitary safety of world trade in animals and their products, also committed at the meeting to give guidance as well as to help the industry to get its foot-andmouth-free status back.

An outbreak of the disease in 2019 resulted in the OIE suspending SA’s disease-free zone status, limiting red meat exports.

It can take a country five years or more to regain its full disease-free status. SA has largely relied on bilateral agreements since then to export its produce, and the latest outbreak is likely to cause more countries to ban SA beef or red meat.

The OIE points out the complexity of containing foot-andmouth. Each strain requires a specific vaccine to provide immunity to a vaccinated animal. Its prevention includes steps such as early detection as well as warning systems and the implementation of effective surveillance.

“We need to take responsibility and accountability as an industry collective to prioritise the health of the herd,” Van Reenen said.

“While it is easy to point fingers at the government to do more, the crisis can be overcome, if all role players — farmers, auctioneers, feedlots and everyone in the beef supply chain — work together to drive the implementation of better traceability structures.”

This week, agriculture, land reform & rural development minister Thoko Didiza said the government was putting all necessary measures in place to curb the outbreak, including clamping down on the illegal movement of animals.

“We warn perpetrators who are illegally moving animals that they will be prosecuted for contravention of the Animal Diseases Act,” the minister said.

WE ARE NOW PERMITTED PRIVATE SECTOR VETS TO ASSIST WITH VACCINATION, WHICH WE WERE NOT ALLOWED BEFORE