The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development has warned that while KwaZulu-Natal remains the epicentre of South Africa’s foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, infections are now rising rapidly in the Free State.
Chief Director of Animal Health and Production Dr Botlhe Modisane briefed Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Agriculture on Tuesday, describing the situation as fluid and changing on a daily basis.
He confirmed there are currently 1,072 confirmed outbreaks nationwide, with hundreds more suspected cases still under investigation.
Although KwaZulu-Natal has been hardest hit, Modisane said the department is expanding its response to include the Free State as part of efforts to contain the spread.
“We haven’t really moved focus from KwaZulu-Natal, but we are including the Free State in terms of trying to arrest the disease in these two provinces, and we’ll be providing them with lots of vaccines to try and stop the disease. It’s not that we are ignoring other provinces,” he said.
South Africa has secured one million vaccine doses from Argentina, with a further 1.5 million expected later this week. In the first phase of the vaccination campaign, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State have each been allocated 200,000 doses.
Authorities are also working to prevent transmission to wildlife populations, particularly buffalo, in areas where livestock and game intermingle.
Modisane noted that provinces such as Limpopo and Mpumalanga remain under close monitoring, citing the risk of buffalo movement from Kruger National Park potentially spreading the virus.
Officials say containment, vaccination and movement controls remain critical as the country races to curb the outbreak before it spreads further.