Upcoming indaba to focus on national foot-and-mouth disease strategy

The two-day event will take place at the ARC-Vegetable, Industrial and Medicinal Plants Campus in Roodeplaat, Gauteng, and is expected to bring together the country’s leading veterinary, agricultural, and research experts to urgently address the disease’s growing impact.

According to a statement by the DoA, the recent outbreaks have affected KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and, most recently, the Free State. These have led to livestock movement restrictions and disrupted red meat trade locally and internationally.

National plan in focus

The DoA told Farmer’s Weekly that the indaba would prioritise the development of a cohesive and actionable national FMD strategy.

“We aim to bring together all partners and stakeholders of the cloven-hoofed livestock industry to evaluate what works and what doesn’t,” it said.

In the interim, the DoA will continue to support the affected farmers: “As always, government assists farmers with vaccination and branding. We also conduct epidemiological services to track the FMD virus/strain involved.”

The DoA acknowledged the economic losses caused by repeated outbreaks and said that long-term policy and funding solutions would also be discussed.

ARC steps up vaccine development

Dr Faith Peta, chief research technician for exotic diseases at the ARC, said the council had made significant progress in developing a locally manufactured FMD vaccine.

“The ARC has managed to develop a suspension production process for FMD vaccine using 20ℓ fermenters, which was registered on 20 May 2022 as a stock remedy under the Fertilizers, Farm Feeds, Seeds and Remedies Act 36 of 1947.

“After testing it at our Onderstepoort farm, [we determined that] the vaccine is efficacious against the FMD strains that usually infect livestock in Southern Africa: SAT 1, 2 and 3. Furthermore, [tests to determine] the vaccine’s efficacy under field conditions in Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces are in progress,” she said.

The ARC, with support from the DoA, is now preparing to scale the vaccine for broader use.

“The vaccine is registered as stock remedy under Act 36 of 1947, and efforts towards the scaling up of the vaccine production output to 150 000 multi-serotype/strain vaccines are under way,” Peta added.

Manufacturing facility and interim solutions

To meet growing demand for the vaccine, Peta said the ARC planned to construct a high-security vaccine manufacturing facility.

“The ARC, through assistance from the DoA and National Treasury, has embarked on a project to construct a one-of-a-kind facility with the capacity to manufacture two million vaccine doses per year,” she said.

“Construction of this facility is envisaged to start in 2026, depending on confirmation of availability of funds. The ARC has not received a confirmation from the DoA or National Treasury that all the needed funds to complete the construction process will be made available,” she added.

Peta noted, however, that in the meantime, the ARC was implementing a portable midscale production system.

“The ARC in collaboration with DoA, is in the process of installing a so-called midscale production system, which is a portable system that is envisaged to produce between 150 000 and 20 000 vaccine doses in the existing and very old vaccine production factory, as a stop gap measure while the new factory is under construction,” she said.

Peta added that five FMD strains had been prioritised for vaccine formulation.