The Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, today expressed confidence in the national strategy to combat Foot and mouth disease (FMD), highlighting that the department and the Ministerial Advisory Task Team are hard at work implementing a decisive, fact-driven blueprint for recovery.

“South Africa now has a realistic and technically sound roadmap to realise its goal of FMD-free status with vaccination, a crucial step for restoring confidence in export markets and stabilising this R80 billion livestock industry,” Minister Steenhuisen said. “This will however take time. We need cooperation of the industry to ensure that we manage to control the disease within a short space of time.”