By Pelane Phakgadi
MEC Nakedi Kekana attends Foot and Mouth Indaba.
Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (LDARD) MEC Mme Nakedi Kekana joins Minister John Steenhuisen, KwaZulu Natal (KZN) and North West MECs, for the Department of Agriculture’s Foot and Mouth (FMD) Indaba. The Indaba was held at the Agricultural Research Council Vegetable Industrial and Medicinal Plant Institute (ARC-VIMP), Roodeplaat in Pretoria.
The event has been necessitated by the flare up of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreaks in the country and sought mainly to revisit the historical patterns of the disease in recent years, considering possible options to approach the control of the disease in the country, and to recommend a structured way forward.
At the same time, the colloquium investigated promoting effective compliance, the implications of an endemic vs free status highlighted to all stakeholders, and to ensure that controlled areas are clearly marked so that everyone is made aware when entering/or leaving a disease-controlled area.
Prior to January 2019, South Africa maintained a Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD)-free zone without vaccination. However, since then, the country has reported eleven outbreak events that have affected this FMD-free zone. Currently, four outbreak events remain unresolved in the KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, North West and Mpumalanga Privinces, while seven have been successfully managed and closed with the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)
The last positive case of Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in Limpopo province was in Vhembe district in April 2022, Gondeni village. within Thulamela and Collins Chabane municipalities.
