South Africa has spent over R72 million on about 900 000 doses of vaccines for the Foot and Mouth disease outbreak since March this year.
The government is now prioritising measures to manufacture locally produced FMD vaccines to respond quicker to outbreaks and prevent economic devastation for many agricultural stakeholders.
Various stakeholders, led by the Department of Agriculture and the Agriculture Research Council, the University of Pretoria, and Onderstepoort Biological Products, are attending a two-day Foot and Mouth Indaba to find long-lasting solutions for Foot and Mouth Disease.
One of the biggest beef producers in the country, Karan Beef, has been crippled by the Foot and Mouth outbreak. They only reopened this week after suffering major financial losses.
"For two months after that, we were closed down. We have three feedlots, and our entire operations were closed down and that's an economic destruction," says Dr. Dirk Verwoerd, senior veterinarian at Karan Beef.
