Eastern Cape farmers are growing increasingly frustrated with government’s handling of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak, saying delays in vaccine supply and rollout have worsened an already damaging situation — even as new doses begin arriving in the country.
The national department of agriculture confirmed last week that it had secured two-million vaccine doses from Turkey as part of a broader consignment of six-million, with additional shipments expected in the coming weeks.
Agriculture minister John Steenhuisen said the aim was to ensure a steady supply of vaccines and ultimately inoculate the national herd, paving the way for SA to regain its FMD-free status with vaccination — a key requirement for access to international red meat markets.
In the Eastern Cape, however, farmers said the pace of vaccine arrivals and the rollout on the ground had been too slow.
From the latest consignment, the province received 135,400 doses — a figure provincial authorities said fell short of what is needed.
The department has since requested an additional 70,000 doses, citing the size of the province’s cattle herd.
Provincial agriculture spokesperson Athule Joka said more than 304,600 doses from previous allocations had already been used.
“All the 304,600 doses the department received from the national department were successfully utilised,” Joka said.
“The vaccination rollout followed the risk-based assessment vaccination approach.
“The strategy started in bordering municipal areas to create buffer zones, followed by targeting hotspots, dairy farms and commonages.”
As of April 13, more than 300,000 cattle had been vaccinated across the province, including 79,272 in Amathole, 87,965 in Alfred Nzo and 54,814 in the Chris Hani district, with smaller numbers in Joe Gqabi, OR Tambo and Sarah Baartman.
Despite this, organised agriculture said the stop-start supply of vaccines had allowed the disease to spread faster than containment efforts.
Agri Eastern Cape president Peter Cloete said farmers had grown frustrated as vaccines arrived in limited quantities before running out again.
“The frustration up until now has been the slow pace in which the vaccine has come into the country,” Cloete said.
“We have been chasing this virus — it has been running away from us because we get some vaccine and then it dries up and then there’s no more, and so the disease keeps moving ahead of us.”
He said the arrival of larger volumes in the coming weeks could begin to turn the tide.
“Now that it’s starting to come in large volumes, it’s going to make a huge impact,” he said.
Farmers said the outbreak had hit the dairy sector particularly hard, with infected cows often removed from production for extended periods.
“Still, it is the milk farmers who are taking the biggest hiding because those cows are out of production for the minimum of a season, very often for life,” Cloete said.
“The next thing we’re hoping is that they’ll lift the quarantine from a year and maybe make it two or three months, because no business can survive for a year without any income.”
At farm level, some have been more direct in their criticism of government’s response.
Stutterheim dairy farmer Walter Biggs said vaccines often arrived too late to prevent losses in affected areas.
“On the side of receiving the vaccines, we are grateful, but for our area it was always too late and the damage had already been done,” he said.
Biggs said the outbreak could have been contained earlier if farmers had been given greater responsibility.
“If this was handled by farmers, the problem would have been solved in October, because farmers are business people, not like vets, not like government people,” he said.
“They would have seen the problem, ordered 20 or 30 million doses, and had the whole country vaccinated before November.
“With all these other laws and protocols of government, which are so antiquated, so slow, that’s why you end up with a situation like we are in.
“The government has failed us.”
Despite the criticism, the provincial department maintains that progress has been made.
“The vaccination proved to be significant in mitigating the spread.
“It has also eased the pressure on most farmers and businesses in the province,” Joka said.
“The virus was unprecedented, and the rollout has been a big learning curve for all parties involved.
“There seems to be coherence and understanding on what is to be done.
“We will reach a point of stability once we have vaccinated over two-million cattle.”
Daily Dispatch