Steenhuisen: R43m allocated to fight foot-and-mouth outbreak
Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen says his department has set aside R43 million for the purchase of vaccines to combat foot-and-mouth disease.
Foot-and-mouth disease is a severe, highly contagious viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, and goats.
Nine hundred thousand much-needed vaccines arrived from Botswana on Friday.
They have been sent to state vets in KZN, Gauteng, the North West and Mpumalanga.
"We have not used all the batches yet. There is a second batch on order to get this matter in control, not only in Gauteng but in Kwa-Zulu Natal," Steenhuisen said during a vaccination process oversight at the Karan Beef Feedlot in Heidelberg on Monday.
The minister added that the vaccinated animals will be safe to eat in six weeks.
" We're going to start in Gauteng and in the disease management area in KwaZulu-Natal, so that we can start ensuring that the food security and the price of food are not affected, and getting those feedlots and avatars back up as quickly as possible."
He says the outbreak has had a devastating impact on the economy and consumers.
" I'm sure that people have noticed the price of beef has gone up quite substantially, and that's as a result of supply and demand. Obviously, there was an outbreak at one of the bigger feed lots. It supplies the meat industry in South Africa, and that's obviously led to a compromise on the quantity of beef that is available.
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