FMD outbreaks ‘could ruin SA’s red meat industry’

South African livestock producers who are unwilling to implement sustainable and thorough biosecurity measures on their farms are irresponsible, according to James Faber, chairperson of the Red Meat Producers’ Organisation.

Following the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in North West and other localities, he said the disease could force the local red meat production industry to its knees if left unchecked, causing financial disaster for the entire value chain in South Africa.

“We cannot afford role players who are careless and slipshod about biosecurity anymore. Biosecurity and disease management depend on every single producer in the country.

“Buyers who are guilty of unlawfully buying, moving and selling clovenhoofed animals out of FMD protection zones must be reported and met by the full might of the law.

“The same goes for other role players in the red meat industry, including auction houses,” he told Farmer’s Weekly.

Meanwhile, Naudé Pienaar, Agri North West assistant manager, said the organisation welcomed the establishment of a joint operation commission to deal with the recent FMD outbreak in the province, but he called on the authorities to act with far more urgency.

The World Organisation for Animal Health officially confirmed an FMD outbreak on two farms between Potchefstroom and Ventersdorp in North West in the fourth week of March.

Pienaar said: “Days after the outbreak was reported, we were still waiting for roadblocks to be erected in order to monitor and control movement in and out of the area.

“The decision-making processes need to be accelerated significantly to ensure that the disease doesn’t spread further. Control measures must be implemented much more quickly. We simply can’t afford to wait days on end for it to happen.” According to Willem van Jaarsveld, chairperson of the South African Footand-Mouth Disease Forum, it was imperative that prospective buyers were absolutely sure about the identity of the seller of an animal, where the animal came from, and what the health status of the animal was.

He said that upon animals’ arrival on a farm, the livestock needed to be kept in quarantine for at least 28 days and monitored with the assistance of a veterinarian.

Van Jaarsveld added that this measure applied not only to containing FMD, but also a host of other diseases, including brucellosis.

In early March, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (agriculture department) published a draft document revising its strategy for the management of African swine fever (ASF).

Johann Kotzé, CEO of the South African Pork Producers’ Organisation (SAPPO), has welcomed the revision.

“Currently, ASF is uncontrolled, and SAPPO believes the new strategy will turn the tide. These new measures will not only protect South Africa’s pig herd, but will also give consumers greater reassurance that they are eating ‘healthy’ pork.”

One of the most significant strategic changes in the draft document was the limiting of culling as an ASF control measure.

“Taking the increasing [number of] outbreaks in various provinces of the country into consideration, eradicating all sources of ASF in South Africa is no longer a feasible option,” the document stated.

In addition, the department argued that the compensation pig owners currently received for culled animals did not empower them to improve biosecurity measures in order to prevent future outbreaks of ASF.

Culling also raised ethical questions, as it could lead to trauma on the part of the pig owners and the officials involved in the culling, the document noted.

“However, euthanasia may be advocated for animal welfare purposes in instances where pigs are already sick and found to be suffering,” it added.

The amended strategy also allowed for specified control measures for different categories of pig farming enterprises. Large-scale operations that exported pigs or pork would have to comply with specific regulations and be registered as veterinaryapproved biosecure “pig compartments”. Producers that sold pigs commercially, including at auctions, or slaughtered pigs at abattoirs, would need to comply with a minimum set of biosecurity measures, to be outlined by the department later.

Smallholders who produced pigs for their own use would not have to conform to the prescribed measures. But this group would not be allowed to sell pigs commercially, including at auctions. They were also not permitted to slaughter their animals at abattoirs, and could keep a maximum of only 10 adult pigs.

South Africa is sitting on a time bomb as far the contamination of its water resources, and groundwater in particular, is concerned. This was according to Dr Gerhard Verdoorn, operations and stewardship manager at CropLife South Africa.

“The poor management [or] lack of management of the country’s water resources in general need to be revisited by the authorities as a matter of urgency to prevent total collapse.

“The situation is critical and is bound to have an impact on every citizen, with the poorest of the poor the worst affected,” he said.

Due to the ongoing collapse of sewerage infrastructure, Verdoorn said he was most concerned about the state of groundwater resources in and around towns and cities. This posed a serious threat to the entire economy and specifically the agriculture industry.

He told Farmer’s Weekly there were indications of increasing levels of harmful microbial pollution such as E. coli in the country’s water sources.

This, coupled with other sources of contamination such as the mining industry, obviously presented a health risk, but also affected the entire agricultural value chain. As it stood, vast areas of valuable agricultural land had already been lost to the mining industry.

“Poor water quality and soil contamination have rendered parts of the eastern summer grain production area unsuitable for crop and fresh produce production.

“We’ve also come across incidents where fresh produce was disqualified from being exported because of polluted groundwater,” Verdoorn said.

South Africa had 22 watersource areas spread across five provinces: KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape, and Limpopo. The combined size of these water-source areas was 12,32 million hectares.

“I foresee chaos should the authorities continue to ignore the ongoing onslaught on our water resources. It’s clear that a shift is needed. It’s imperative that action be taken to turn the situation around,” Verdoorn said.

The World Wildlife Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF SA) meanwhile said in a statement that in a world rapidly “heating up” due to climate change, more frequent droughts and floods with concomitant disruptions to water supply could be expected. Under these circumstances, groundwater supplies would become increasingly critical for water security.

According to WWF SA, it was therefore essential that the roles and responsibilities of every decision-maker in terms of water conservation were clear and executable, from ministerial level down to municipalities and individual borehole owners.

Institutions did not yet share a common vision regarding groundwater, and the voices of civil society, such as those of borehole owners, still needed to be brought into the conversation, WWF SA said.