Relief and anger as FMD vaccine roll-out speeds up after delays

South Africa’s long-awaited foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine roll-out has gathered pace, but farmers remain divided relieved by progress yet furious over earlier delays and red tape. Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen said the government had moved from reacting to outbreaks to setting the pace of the national response.

Government outlines scale of vaccination effort

Steenhuisen told the public that since February the country had procured 13.5 million doses of FMD vaccine and that as of 28 May just under 4.4 million animals had been vaccinated across South Africa.

He said the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority had approved a Section 21 application allowing Dunevax to import 14 million doses of the Dollvet vaccine, with the first consignment of four million doses due to arrive this month. The minister also said the government had spent R494 million on vaccine procurement and deployment.

Provincial vaccination figures

Steenhuisen gave provincial totals for animals vaccinated to date:

• KwaZulu‑Natal: more than 1.1 million animals vaccinated
• Free State: over 600 000 animals vaccinated
• Eastern Cape: over 720 000 animals vaccinated
• Mpumalanga: over 430 000 animals vaccinated
• Limpopo: over 350 000 animals vaccinated
• Gauteng: over 270 000 animals vaccinated
• Western Cape: over 260 000 animals vaccinated
• Northern Cape: over 87 000 animals vaccinated

Officials and industry respond

Steenhuisen acknowledged criticisms that the roll-out should have been faster but said that historically the country’s biosecurity systems had been geared towards reacting to outbreaks.

“For the first time since this crisis began, South Africa is increasingly setting the pace of the response rather than reacting to the disease,”

he said, and added that despite challenges including severe storms and logistics constraints, agricultural exports grew by 7% over the past year and the sector generated a trade surplus of about $7.3 billion in 2025.

Private sector and farm organisations voice anger over delays

Not all responses were positive. Southern African Agri Initiative CEO Francois Rossouw said the government should explain why it took litigation to force recognition of the private sector’s right to procure and administer vaccines.

“Of course it should. The question is why the minister and his department fought so hard to prevent others from helping,”

Rossouw said. He also questioned the time taken to share strains and publish schemes, saying it took nine months to get South Africa’s strains to the Pirbright Laboratory and six months to publish a Section 10 scheme.

TLU SA chair Bennie van Zyl said the department had begun involving different industry organisations in the FMD response and that, for the first time, farmers were seeing a different approach from the department, although he noted it had taken a long time to reach that point.

Where things stand

The picture described by officials combines accelerated vaccination procurement and rollout with ongoing frustration from parts of the farming sector over earlier delays and regulatory barriers. The government has reported large vaccine orders and significant spending, while industry leaders have demanded explanations for the pace and handling of the response.