Assurances by the board of the Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP), a state-owned producer of vaccines for the livestock industry, that it was putting its house in order comes as cold comfort for red meat producers and equestrian sectors as a crippling shortage of vaccines, some unavailable for over a year now, is already resulting in some animal deaths.
The industry is apprehensive about the shortage of vaccines, especially for waterborne diseases, which are escalating after a strong rainy season raised the presence of mosquitoes and other insect carriers.
An official of the National Animal Health Forum (NAHF), which comprises of the Red Meat Producers Organisation (RPO), the African Farmers Association of South Africa (AFASA), Agri SA and the South African Poultry Association, said reports emerged at a liaison meeting yesterday that horses were dying for lack of the African Horse Sickness vaccine, which is produced only by the OBP in southern Africa.
“There is a shortage in every single province, all reports have the same tune, we can’t get most of the vaccines especially those needed following the rains. There is no Blue Tongue, Rift Valley Fever, African Redwater, Lumpy Skin Disease and the African Horse Disease vaccines. Even those for smaller animals like sheep and goats are unavailable,” the official said.
In a statement yesterday, OBP Chairperson Rene Kenosi alluded to the entity having major problems, some technical like the poor maintenance of manufacturing equipment, but also conceded to corporate problems which led to the dismissal in December of the chief executive officer and chief financial officer for procurement-related anomalies.
“The Board admits there have been production issues that can be attributed to a historical lack of plant maintenance as well as ongoing challenges relating to (among others) interrupted electricity supply and labour issues. The OBP Board is working closely with management to ensure processes of maintaining, augmenting, and procuring equipment, the said processes which are planned over the short, medium, and long term. OBP can further confirm that vaccines currently required by the market are available through the various Retail Outlets and Veterinarians that sell OBP products," Kenosi said.
Kenosi said a further and significant impact that affected operations was the actions of – and the initial precautionary suspension in April 2021 of the former CEO, Dr Baptiste Dungu as well as the former manager in the CEO’s office, Lindiwe Mabena, pending investigations relating to various alleged transgressions including (but not limited to) allowing or instigating irregular procurement procedures, dishonesty and mismanagement in contravention of OBP’s policies.
Chairman of the RPO James Faber said it was apparent that the OBP had management problems, but that the livestock industry could not afford losses of the national herds as well as the threat the lack of vaccines posed to the export market.
“Our production will definitely be affected by the lack of vaccines, a lot of animals will die. There are also diseases that are transferred to human beings from livestock and we do not have the means to vaccinate against them,” Faber said.
This is in reference to Rift Valley Fever described as a highly infectious zoonotic disease, which means it can be transferred to humans.
Industry players said while the OBP sorted its house, private companies who have developed some vaccines were out in the cold as their products needed to be registered, which too was taking too long.
The industry was also hamstrung in that the OBP was the only one producing vaccines for African livestock diseases which made it impossible to seek alternatives anywhere else.
The industry met with the Minister for Agriculture Thoko Didiza in late January to address the issues, but is concerned about bureaucratic delays in sorting out the issues, which include emergency registration of private sector developed vaccines to stem the tide.
"Livestock cannot afford to wait weeks for vaccines, at this stage we are in a crises and we need to have solutions as soon as possible,“ the NAHF official said.
The NAHF has tabled some possible solutions to the state officials, which are being worked at, but it emphasised that time was running out as some livestock was already dying.
The South African Poultry Association (SAPA) said it was in a fortunate position that none of its medical remedies were sourced from the OBP, and it had not felt the impact of the vaccines shortage.
“Chicken farmers/producers do not procure their vaccines from Onderstepoort; they purchase vaccines either locally or internationally. As this is the case, the poultry sector is not suffering from shortages,” Izaak Breitenbach, chairperson of SAPA’s Broiler organisation said.
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