MANZINI, Dec 19 (The African Portal) – Livestock farmers and butchery owners are calling upon government to roll out foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccinations across the country to stop the rapid virus.
The concerned stakeholders voiced this demand yesterday during a meeting held at the Liberty Centre in Manzini.
The livestock farmers and butchery owners’ task team are advocating for community-led solutions to the crisis. This follows reports that the Minister for Agriculture, Mandla Tshawuka, has classified the FMD outbreak as reaching a crisis level. Currently, only the Hhohho Region remains free of FMD cases, while the other three regions are experiencing surges.
In response to the outbreak of the disease, government has injected E40 million into efforts to combat it. Some of the measures that have been implemented so far are FMD checkpoints and the restriction of livestock movements.
Tisuka TakaNgwane Agriculture Manager, Dambuza Ngomane, stated that the situation has spiralled out of control. He argued that the country needs to budget to vaccinate all livestock, mainly cattle in the country to contain the disease and subsequently end it. He suggested that after vaccinating the cattle, the country could observe a window period while assessing the situation.
On the same note, one of the stakeholders, Andzile Gule, said his understanding of vaccines is that when they vaccinate an animal, they put in a certain sickness into it so that it can become immune against a certain disease. He clarified that the vaccine does not cure the FMD, but makes the cattle immune to it.
He said the safe and more efficient way to contain and end FMD is for government to get vaccines for the cattle even in areas that are not classified as red zones, so that it can build immunity against the disease. He said farmers and businesses will be blacklisted for failing to service their loans. This leaves them without an option, but to sell meat through the black market to meet financial obligations.
He also suggested that in the meantime that government should allow people in the same red zones to sell cattle to each other.
Some of the livestock farmers and butchery owners said they fear that the situation might get worse next year. They also suggested that government must vaccinate all cattle in the country, even in areas that have not yet been affected by FMD.
While acknowledging that budget constraints might slow the rollout, they suggested that cattle owners could contribute a certain amount to help fund a national vaccination campaign. In fact, they said a viable proposal is that government should buy the vaccine and then sell it to the livestock farmers at a subsidised price.
They also lamented the lack of unity in fighting the disease, noting that key stakeholders are currently pointing fingers at one another. However, they said they remain hopeful for a breakthrough and are awaiting answers from the ministry regarding the submissions made during the meeting.
One of them, Jabulile Matsenjwa, who also operates a feedlot, shared the same sentiments. She said the only answer is rolling out a nationwide vaccination. She questioned why the ministry is only vaccinating cattle in affected areas. She argued that it should also vaccinate cattle even in areas that are not currently affected in order to prevent the disease from spreading.
Credit: Times of Eswatini
