Govt desperately needs private sector help on FMD vaccines

By Simon Nare

Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen has appealed to the livestock industry especially the red meat, dairy and game sectors to start co-financing vaccine procurement in the event of foot-and-mouth disease.

In his keynote address to open the Food and Mouth Disease Indaba on Monday, Steenhuisen said the industry needed to be proactive and not be caught off guard when there was an outbreak of the disease.

Structured partnerships must be created to ensure the industry was always on alert.

“The time has come to build a nationally managed but jointly funded vaccine bank, not only for FMD, but for lumpy skin disease, brucellosis, Rift Valley Fever and all other controlled diseases affecting trade and production,” he said.

Steenhuisen reminded guests that during a recent outbreak, the department was forced to turn to Botswana to purchase vaccines after the country ran out of them because the national vaccines bank