Since 2019, South Africa has experienced foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks outside the protection and surveillance zones at an increasingly worrying rate, with 17 new cases recently reported in the Free State.
These outbreaks are costing the agricultural industry dearly and have prompted the Minister of Agriculture, Mr John Steenhuisen, to draw on the affected agricultural industries by establishing an Industry - Government Task Team on Animal Disease Prevention, Management and Control, chaired by Dr Emily Mogajane, Chief Director: Biosecurity Coordination and a former staff member of the Faculty.
The announcement by the Minister was made at a recent press conference. The Task Team will work on the adoption of the Progressive Control Pathway (PCP) to gradually regain FMD-free status.
Two faculty staff members have been invited to participate in the Task Team.
They are Prof Dietmar Holm, Bovine Herd Health specialist in the faculty’s Department of Production Animal Studies, and Prof Armanda Bastos, an expert in epidemiology and Professor in One Health in the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases.
She has worked extensively on foot-and-mouth disease and manages the One Health platform at the Hans Hoheisen Wildlife Research Station (HHWRS) in the Kruger National Park.
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