JUSTIN ARENSTEIN and SIZWE SAMAYENDE, Middelburg | Friday
THE foot-and-mouth outbreak in Mpumalanga this week, which could drive the South African meat industry to the brink of disaster, could well have been caused by cattle imported from a neighbouring country.
The outbreak, which has seen Swaziland close its border with South Africa for imports of all livestock, has seen an emergency response team of State veterinarians deployed to Kanhym Estate, 20km east of Middelburg, to access the extent of the outbreak.
Agri-Mpumalanga president Lourie Bosman said there was speculation that the latest virus originated in Namibia. Between 200000 and 300000 suckling calves are imported from this country annually, and foot-and-mouth disease recently occurred in the Caprivi strip.
Forensic veterinary tests confirmed that some of the 10 000 cattle corralled in Kanhym’s feedlot were definitely infected with foot and mouth.
The estate’s 54 000 pigs, which are usually more susceptible to the disease than cattle, have all tested disease free so far.
The outbreak comes just weeks after authorities were forced to slaughter thousands of animals and quarantine a 20 000 square kilometre zone in KwaZulu-Natal in an increasingly desperate attempt to contain South Africa’s first outbreak of foot and mouth in 44 years.
The KwaZulu-Natal outbreak, which was caused by a tainted shipment of pigswill to a Camperdown piggery three months ago, has prompted scores of international bans and partial bans on South African meat products.
Mpumalanga currently accounts for 13% of South Africa’s entire beef and other cattle meat product industry, earning R390m per year. The provincial pig farming industry generates roughly R14m per year and contributes three percent to the national pork industry.
Pointing out that Mpumalanga’s cattle industry comprised large commercial farmers who were easier to police that the hundreds of small communal farmers in Camperdown, Bosman confirmed that no cattle had been destroyed yet.
“We’re initially inoculating all 10 000 cattle on Kanhym and those on the adjourning farms. We’ll decide whether to destroy them later, once the vets have a clearer idea of the extent of the problem,” he added. – African Eye News Service