As South Africans are increasingly unable to afford the sharp price increases in food, the Red Meat Producers’ Organisation (RBO) this week warned the red meat sector faces a “state of disaster” due to the lack of animal vaccines available.
This comes at a time the data revealed last month, showed that the average price of a household food basket was more than R5 000. This was according to the April, 2023 Household Affordability Index compiled by the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity group.
The RPO told Business Report that the shortage of strategic vaccines in the livestock and animal industries had now caused a state of disaster in the red meat industry, the lack of which could impact human health.
James Faber, chairman of the national RPO, said commercial and emerging producers were now suffering serious losses due to bluetongue outbreaks, which cause up to 50% mortality among herds, and African horse sickness among horses and donkeys that play a supporting role in the production process of red meat.
The RPO has previously warned and predicted this would happen due to the shortage in supply of certain vaccines that were only produced by Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP).
Last year South Africa was hit by a devastating outbreak of foot-and- mouth disease, but the country does not produce its own vaccine for the disease.
According to the National Animal Health Forum (NAHF), it has been calculated that 1.2 million South African households had livestock for their livelihoods, therefore, affecting the emerging sector. Some of these diseases were also zoonotic diseases, affecting the human population.
OBP confirmed, in response to Business Report’s questions, that it had for some time been unable to produce sufficient vaccines.
It said that although there were a few livestock vaccines that OBP has been able to produce.
“OBP is engaged in possible contract manufacturing with other vaccine manufacturers. Engagements between the National Animal Health Forum and the director-general as part of the task team are ongoing.”
The customer-centric developer, manufacturer, and supplier of cost-effective quality animal health solutions said to date only one vaccine registration was assessed by the Act 36. But this application was found not to meet requirements for registration.
The office of the registrar said it had sufficient capacity to process applications, if and when submitted.
“As is the case with human health any pharmaceutical company may produce any vaccines except for foot and mouth disease (FMD), for as long as they comply with the requirements of Act 36/1947 and Act 101/1965.
“The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza has also appointed a number of external evaluators to augment the capacity of the office of the registrar in terms of Act 36/1947 should the need arise,” it said.
But Faber said, “It is tragic, and this could have been prevented if the proposed feasible action steps had been taken by the authorities. We feel the authorities have let the industry down.”
The organisation said it was ironic that the industry was now implementing measures and strategies on how to produce, without the vaccines.
It added that despite the RPO’s advice against it, the organisation said some producers were now resorting to the use of illegal unregistered vaccines, which posed great risks.
The RPO said it supported the actions of the NAHF, which it was also a member of. The RPO was part of the NAHF’s actions, which included an open discussion with the agriculture minister in March.
During the meeting a sub-committee was appointed to urgently make proposals to advise the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development minister, and the minister had set a deadline of April 28 for this. On inquiry to the NAHF, the committee did not meet, despite several inquiries from the NAHF.
The RPO said the lack of urgency by the authorities was extremely frustrating for them.
It said the slowness to take the necessary proposed corrective actions undermined the objectives of the Agriculture Agro-processing Master Plan (AAMP) and had serious animal welfare implications, and also posed risks to human health.
On several occasions, the NAHF had done the needs assessment for vaccines on behalf of the livestock and animal industries and proposed solutions that included, among others, that the vaccines must be produced by more than one service provider in order to discount risk, and ensure competitiveness and capacity,
It added that certain vaccines could be produced with the help of the private sector or produced under a licence on behalf of the OBP.
The RPO said it urgently requested that the solutions be announced and implemented by the authorities within urgent timelines.
“Although it is already too late, everything possible must be done to prevent national pandemic,” Faber said.
The RPO said it wanted to place on record that in the interests of food security, poverty alleviation, implementation of the AAMP, human health, export strategies and animal welfare more drastic steps would be taken if necessary to ensure that the vaccine issue be resolved urgently.
BUSINESS REPORT