Government’s Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) eradication approach is most likely to fail owing to the vaccination rollout being fundamentally inadequate and slow at farm-level, farmer-led initiative FMD Response SA states.

The organisation deems it between 90% and 95% probable that government’s current approach to vaccination will not mathematically achieve the herd immunity required by World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).

FMD Response SA spokesperson Andrew Morphew says that while the organisation appreciates government’s commitment to South African farmers and the acquisition  of superior vaccines to control the outbreak of FMD, the only way to stop the disease spreading is to ensure the country’s 14-million cattle are vaccinated within a tight timeframe of six to eight weeks to ensure immunity to the virus.

By contrast, the government aims to vaccinate 80% of South Africa’s cattle only by December. This timeline presents serious challenges, FMD Response SA says, noting that some cattle will lose immunity when vaccine protection wanes after about six months, before other cattle are vaccinated, allowing the disease to continue spreading.

Lessons from Argentina and Brazil's successful eradication of FMD have shown that cattle must be vaccinated within strict timeframes and boosted six months later to ensure widespread immunity that halts the virus.

Morphew explains that no country in the world has achieved WOAH-required FMD-free-with-vaccination-status using yearly rolling single-dose campaigns.

“The private sector is ready and willing to assist the government and wants to contribute to the FMD effort immediately and in a way that will be effective,” he implores.

His comments follow the Department of Agriculture on May 4 publishing a Section 10 Scheme allowing for private-public partnerships to vaccination – voluntary vaccination paid by farmers for private veterinarian administration of vaccines under State veterinary oversight.

Morphew says that, while this amendment does make allowances for some measure of private partnerships in vaccination efforts, the State still controls all vaccine distribution.

“This approach is a recipe for failure. As demonstrated by the successful vaccination campaigns of Brazil and Argentina, private distribution is essential to ensure vaccines reach farms timeously and are administered effectively at the farm level. Requiring the state to centrally control distribution leads to bottlenecks and delays,” Morphew warns.

Delays in vaccination result in some cattle losing immunity before others are protected, increasing the risk of vaccinated cattle being reinfected.

While FMD Response SA welcomes the goals of the Section 10 scheme, in reality, the private sector needs actual and speedy access to vaccines for this participation to be in any way impactful.

“The Section 10 scheme also lacks mandatory tight time frames that should be enforced to ensure all cattle are vaccinated quickly.

“A slow State-controlled rollout means South Africa will not be able to control the disease. Vaccination at speed and scale is only possible by activating private sector vaccine distribution,” Morphew concludes.