By Levy Masiteng
The Agricultural Research Council (ARC) has approved a proposal to allow qualifying private companies to use its intellectual property to manufacture its locally developed Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine on a large scale.
Agriculture Minister Willie Aucamp said on Tuesday this would help address the country’s vaccine production constraints.
The agreement was unanimously approved by the ARC and its board on Monday, following a proposal from Aucamp.
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According to the Department of Agriculture, the arrangement will allow local or international companies to manufacture the ARC’s FMD vaccine through conditional intellectual-property licensing agreements with the research council.
“Partnering with the private sector to manufacture the ARC vaccine marks a decisive breakthrough in safeguarding South Africa’s livestock sector, strengthening national biosecurity, and securing food supply chains,” Aucamp said.
“I’ve listened to the concerns of farmers and other stakeholders in the sector, and I appreciate that they want swift action to deal with this Foot-and-Mouth-Disease outbreak.”
The ARC has developed an FMD vaccine that the government said provides effective protection against domestic FMD strains and requires only one annual administration.
However, the ARC currently does not have sufficient manufacturing capacity to produce the vaccine at the scale required.
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The department said that under the new arrangement, qualifying private companies will be able to manufacture the ARC vaccine under licensing agreements controlling how the ARC’s intellectual property is used.
The ARC will continue rebuilding and expanding its own production capacity while third-party manufacturers provide additional capacity to produce the vaccine at scale.
Any income generated by the ARC through the licensing agreements will be ringfenced and used specifically to increase its own FMD vaccine manufacturing capacity.
“Although the implementation of this decision will not happen overnight, it is a huge step forward in combating this FMD outbreak, and I am proud to confirm that all parties involved have committed to do whatever they can to ensure that this decision is implemented without delay,” Aucamp said.
South Africa relied on imported FMD vaccines since 2006, while the first batch of locally produced ARC vaccine for the current outbreak was released in February 2026.
The council has said scaling up production is technically complex and requires specialised, high-biocontainment facilities.
The ARC’s vaccine production technology has been updated, with recently adapted strains intended to match FMD viruses circulating in South Africa and the wider SADC region.
The new licensing arrangement could therefore add manufacturing capacity without requiring the ARC to abandon its own long-term production plans.
The move also comes after Aucamp said earlier this month that government and the private sector had worked together to import more than 23 million FMD vaccine doses, while vaccination of cattle was continuing across all provinces.
He said more than 1.38 million commercial dairy cattle had received their first dose and that second-round booster vaccinations were progressing.
Agriculture-sector reporting based on official data showed that South Africa still had more than 2,000 active FMD outbreaks at the end of July, although the number had fallen from 2,403 at the end of June to 2,060.
“It is against this background that we are now, for the first time, going to allow the private sector to make use of the IP of the ARC to enhance the availability of the ARC vaccine,” Aucamp said.
FMD is a highly contagious viral disease affecting cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. It can cause fever, blisters, lameness and significant production losses.
The World Organisation for Animal Health says the disease can severely disrupt livestock production and regional and international trade.
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FMD is not considered a public-health risk to humans.
Alongside the new manufacturing partnership, Aucamp has asked the ARC to send representative FMD virus isolates circulating in South Africa to the Pirbright Institute in the United Kingdom in October.
The samples will be used for a second round of vaccine-matching assessments.
The department said the exercise will provide an additional scientific assessment of how suitable locally produced and imported vaccines are against the FMD viruses currently circulating in South Africa.
