South Africa has submitted local foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) field strains to the Pirbright Institute in the UK, marking the first such submission since 2011.
The Pirbright Institute, recognised as the world reference laboratory for FMD, does not manufacture vaccines but plays a pivotal role in assessing whether existing vaccines are a good match for the virus strains circulating in the field.
“By sending our latest FMD virus strains to Pirbright, South Africa is ensuring the millions of vaccine doses being procured are scientifically proven to protect our national herd,” said agriculture minister John Steenhuisen.
The department has previously shared materials with the Pirbright laboratory as part of routine submissions under the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) framework, including a recent dispatch in late 2025. The exchanges are used by global reference labs to update pathogen strain catalogues.
Business Day reported on the financial impact of FMD in South Africa. According to Steenhuisen’s response to a parliamentary question, the average annual loss of revenue is estimated at R3.7bn for fresh and frozen beef, R1.4bn for goat and sheep meat and R502.4m for live cattle, sheep and goats. Together, these category estimates amount to a calculated total of R5.6bn, based on last year’s export statistics.
The reply records there is no compensation method available to producers.
The submission to Pirbright forms part of the department of agriculture’s broader 10-Year FMD eradication strategy, which aims to transition South Africa to “FMD-free status with vaccination” through a phased approach.
The first phase, titled Stabilisation, spans the first two years and will focus on intensive mass vaccination in high-risk provinces. The stated goal is to reduce outbreaks by 70% within 12 months in targeted areas. The department aims to achieve 80% vaccination coverage in communal cattle and up to 100% in feedlots and dairy cows.
Vaccine supply for this phase is being secured from international and local partners.
Subsequent phases of the eradication plan include:
- Consolidation (years two to four): Establishment of buffer zones and certified disease-free compartments to protect unaffected provinces such as the Western and Northern Cape.
- Recovery (years four to 10): Gradual withdrawal of vaccines in select zones and a formal application to WOAH for international recognition of FMD-free status.
Industry pushback against state’s FMD controls
Meanwhile, business organisation Sakeliga has announced legal steps aimed at diminishing what it calls “the state’s harmful imposition of itself as gatekeeper” in the country’s response to FMD.
In a statement issued on Friday, Sakeliga said it is working with industry role players to enable more independent responses to the outbreak by farmers, animal-health practitioners and agribusinesses.
“The government continues to call FMD a ‘state-controlled disease’, but this is a misnomer. In many places the disease is out of control,” the organisation said.
It criticised regulatory restrictions on the procurement and administration of vaccines, arguing the constraints are entrenching the outbreak rather than containing it.
Sakeliga said it is providing legal resources to affected parties to support potential damages claims against the state and is exploring litigation aimed at removing barriers to private sector vaccine acquisition and use.
“The only lasting solutions are those designed from the outset to be state proof,” it said, adding effective disease control must be driven by civil institutions and industry bodies, not a “detached central state”.
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