OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday
THE South African agricultural industry is teetering on the brink of disaster after the discovery of a second outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Mpumalanga Province.
Afrikaans daily newspaper Beeld reported that the newest outbreak of the disease, which has already taken on epidemic proportions in KwaZulu-Natal, was discovered in a feedlot containing 10000 cattle in Middelburg after being picked up in routine tests by a Swaziland abbatoir.
Gert Ehlers, president of the Transvaal Agricultural Union, told Beeld that the new outbreak could have “catastrophic effects” on South African agriculture, which is already reeling from the effects of the KwaZulu-Natal outbreak. More than 35 countries, including the lucrative European Union markets, have imposed some form of ban on the import of South African meat products.
Beeld quoted Mpumalanga Agricultural Union president Lourie Bosman as saying the disease was a different strain to that currently sweeping KwaZulu-Natal, so it could not have spread from there. It is also a different strain from the one which is endemic in the Kruger National Park.
Bosman said the union had “a good idea” where the disease originated, but would not speculate until tests had confirmed their suspicions.
It is not known if the new outbreak has spread beyond the feedlot, and the department of agriculture is meeting with Mpumalanga’s agricultural union and the SA Defence Force to formulate strategies to prevent a similar crisis to the one in KwaZulu-Natal.
Strict control measures have already been implemented to prevent the spread of the disease to a neighbouring feedlot containing 50000 pigs. All slaughtering of cattle in the area has been suspended, and the fate of the infected animals will be determined today.
Bosman appealed to farmers in the area to stay calm, saying they “would not make the same mistakes as had been made in KwaZulu-Natal”. Briefings will be held for farmers in the area as to the protocols and safety measures which will be implemented to halt the spread of the disease.