Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, today confirmed that the South African government will cover the full cost of vaccinating the national herd against Foot and mouth disease (FMD).

This means there will be no cost to farmers for vaccines administered as part of the national response to the FMD outbreaks.

Vaccines have been distributed to all provinces and the vaccination programme is now well underway. Hundreds of thousands of animals are being vaccinated each week as the country works towards the target of vaccinating 80% of the national herd by December.

South Africa has already received one million vaccine doses from Biogénesis Bagó in Argentina and 1.5 million doses from Dollvet in Türkiye, with further consignments scheduled to arrive during the coming weeks to sustain the vaccination campaign.

Minister Steenhuisen expressed his appreciation to the veterinary professionals and industry partners assisting with the rollout.