Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen says the country will need 28 million vaccines at no cost to the farmer to stop the foot and mouth disease (FMD) crisis in the country.,
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Steenhuisen made the remarks during the Gauteng leg of the national mass vaccination rollout in Ekurhuleni.
He was joined by MEC Vuyiswa Ramokgopa as the day began with an engagement session at Suikerbos Nature Reserve, with Farmers and other stakeholders.
FMD assessment
Steenhuisen said his department has assessed the current FMD crisis in the country.
“Our team, made up of private and public veterinarians, got together and put on the table a strategy, which we are now implementing, the risk-based vaccination strategy. It is our intention that by December, we would have vaccinated 80% of the national herd.
“The figure is 14 million, but obviously, it could fluctuate, depending on what we find once we get stuck into the communal areas, where there’s generally been an underreporting. And we would hope to vaccinated them twice by the December month. So that’s 28 million vaccines that are required,” Steenhuisen said.
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Herd immunity
Steenhuisen added that 80% of vaccination is the “critical point for the attainment of what is called herd immunity, and to ensure that his department is able to stop the spread and reduce the numbers of outbreaks around the country.
“We will then continue to vaccinate, then start to slowly compartmentalize the country, and stop vaccinating in certain compartments and other compartments, we will always have to vaccinate, because, particularly, in the interface between the Kruger National Park, and game reserves in Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). but also on our border areas with other countries.”
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Vaccine costs
Steenhuisen said farmers will not bear the cost of the vaccines.
“The MEC dealt with some of the disinformation that is flowing around the country. The first one is that government is making a huge profit or vaccine. As I’ve said very clearly, from the beginning, this is a national disaster. There is a state-controlled disease, FMD, and therefore, the state is picking up the cost of the vaccines,” the minister said.
“Farmers will not be charged for the vaccine, so please, those farmers who are here, there’s no charge to you for the vaccine. It’s free of charge. So please open your farms up to allow us to vaccine vaccinate as quickly as possible.
“There’s other nonsense that’s doing the rounds that the vaccine, the state’s paying 300 grand a dose. completely untrue. The vaccine costs on the two vaccines are R68 and R60 respectively. Please don’t believe the fake news about R80 rand and R300 rand per dose. So there’s no profits, there’s no funny business going on. There’s no underhand activities taking place,” Steenhuisen said.
Human transmission
Steenhuisen also added that there is no transmission from animals to humans of foot to mouth disease.
It is not a zoonotic disease; it cannot pass to humans. The meat is completely safe to eat, and I would encourage as many people as possible to buy as much beef and dairy products as they can during this period, because we need to help keep our farmers on their farms and their finances moving in the state across.
“The last thing we want is for everyone to stop eating red meat, stop purchasing dairy products. As a result of FMD, there is no transmission whatsoever to humans, and the meat is safe to eat,” Steenhuisen said.
Steenhuisen said South Africa has already received one million vaccine doses from Biogénesis Bagó in Argentina and 1.5 million doses from Dollvet in Türkiye, with further consignments scheduled to arrive during the coming weeks to sustain the vaccination campaign.
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