CONTROLS to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease between SA, Mozambique and Swaziland have crumbled, posing devastating risks to SA’s feedlot industry.
A parliamentary oversight visit to the border with Mozambique and Swaziland by the national agriculture and fisheries portfolio committee, and KwaZulu-Natal’s conservation and environmental affairs and agriculture committees, revealed this week there were no longer any adequate controls to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease, according to the Democratic Alliance’s KwaZulu-Natal spokes-man on conservation and environmental affairs, Radley Keys.
Cloven-hoofed animals could have direct contact in some cases through an inadequate single fence and in others through porous fences that allowed for the free movement of cattle across the boundaries, without any checks, and "with (the disease) prevalent in both countries and no co-ordinated intervention programme to contain the disease, the consequences are devastating," said Mr Keys.
Absa agriculture economist Ernst Janovsky said the risk of the disease harming SA’s feedlot industry was large, and the monitoring of borders by state agriculture officials was "falling flat".
The International Agricultural Organisation recently extended the ban on South African beef products for a further 18 months on top of the initial censure imposed about two years ago.
Mr Janovsky said the ban prevented SA from balancing beef supply and demand. The country was a net importer of beef, poultry, mutton and pork, but before the ban it exported higher-value beef hindquarter cuts and was an importer of lower-value forequarter cuts.
Some neighbouring countries, such as Botswana and Namibia, had stringent measures to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease, and these countries were exporting to major markets such as the US and Europe, said Mr Janovsky.
Not being able to export to the US, the European Union and the UK was jeopardising SA’s future as a major role player in the industry.
But it seemed there was little urgency from the government to re-establish the "red-line" veterinary fence, said Mr Keys.
The fence had existed a few kilometres south of the border to prevent infected cattle from moving south into KwaZulu-Natal. The visit revealed that the fence no longer existed. It was partially damaged in the 2000 floods and had never been repaired.
"In 2007 the government voted R27m for the reconstruction of this boundary. Yet, when questioned, neither national nor provincial officials could say what had happened to this money," said Mr Keys.
(BusinessDay)
