Foot-and-mouth outbreak could cost SA billions Farmer's Weekly - Lloyd Phillips

A study by South Africa’s Red Meat Producers’ Organisation (RPO) has found that if the country lost its foot-and-mouth disease-free (FMD) status in the foreseeable future, SA’s economy would lose around R6 billion every year.

It was, therefore, critical that government animal health authorities ensured that the FMD discovered in Limpopo’s Giyani Local Municipality (GLM) on 21 August 2017 was kept confined within the protection zone.

The GLM protection zone was adjacent to the Kruger National Park, a recognised reservoir of the disease.

CEO of the RPO, Gerhard Schutte, told Farmer’s Weekly that while his organisation was satisfied with the effectiveness with which the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) had been managing the identification and control of the FMD discovered in the GLM, the RPO had subsequently requested DAFF to tighten security within the protection zone through additional quarantines and roadblocks.