The physical inspections conducted on the animals in the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) protection zone in some parts of Northern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) have shown lesions which ranged from a week old and some older than two weeks.
Some cattle in 23 dip tanks have also tested positive on a non-structural protein test. If a test is positive it confirms active infection of an FMD virus even though the specific strain has not been identified.
What this means essentially is that we have an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
The current foot-and-mouth disease is different from the outbreak which occurred in Camperdown, KwaZulu-Natal, in 2000, which was identified as serotype-O. The FMD serotype-O is a foreign virus which is commonly found in the Middle East.
Currently, further tests are being conducted to identify the strain.
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) together with the provincial Department of Agriculture in KwaZulu-Natal has intensified the surveillance with a view to determining the furthest point of infection.
Surveillance will be conducted in areas north of the Umfolosi River. Additional surveillance will be conducted in the south of KwaZulu-Natal and in provinces adjacent to KwaZulu-Natal (Free State, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga).
The provincial South African Police Service and the Road Traffic Inspectorate have been made aware and are on stand-by to be activated urgently as and when the need arises to assist with the setting-up of roadblocks to control the movement of live animals.
The department will also be liaising with the neighbouring countries, Swaziland and Mozambique, to ensure harmonised control measures.
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a severe, highly contagious viral disease which affects livestock with significant economic impact. The disease affects cattle and swine as well as sheep, goats, and other cloven-hoofed animals. The disease does not affect human beings.
FMD is, however, not a communicable disease, thus the outbreak will not affect the domestic supply of meat and meat products.
Over 600 animals have been tested, and 50 percent of them were found to be positive. Government wishes to convey the message that the situation is under control, and that there is no need to panic.
A team of experts from the department is on the ground conducting further investigations to verify the results.The control measures will be determined by the findings of this investigation.
The matter has been reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) last Friday, 25 February 2011. As a result of this development we temporarily suspended the official OIE recognised FMD-free status of South Africa. Consequently, we have suspended all exports of cloven-hoofed animals, inter alia, cattle, goats, sheep and their products with immediate effect, except for products that have been fully processed to inactivate the FMD virus.
The economic impact of the outbreak will be on the export of venison (game meat) with an estimated amount of R50 million as well as hides and skins with an estimated amount of R300 million, per annum.
The department is hard at work trying to quantify the economic impact on the export of wool, live animals and cloven-hoofed game animals.
The department wishes to reassure the farming community in northern KZN that there is no need to panic as their livestock is in no immediate danger yet.
Farmers are cautioned to observe bio-security measures – not to allow any new animals into their herd, and to minimise the movement of their own herd as well as animal products to other farms.
All suspected cases of the disease in animals must be reported to the local State Veterinarian.
For more information contact:
Selby Bokaba
Cell: 082 778 0245
Botlhe Modisane
Cell: 082 377 0865
