No wonder we have outbreaks of FMD....
Image: ideogram.ai
The foot and mouth crisis affecting bovine herds reveals two realities which would not have been the case before 1994.
The first concerns the demise of Onderstepoort. Once a world-class facility in veterinary research and medications, due to loss of technical expertise (read: through emigration), mismanagement, and corruption, it is now in a state of dysfunction. Despite R495 million being given to upgrade its facilities, the Auditor-General found the money could not be accounted for and had been squandered (Bus Tech, January 16).
Sadly, Onderstepoort’s fate has been replicated in every government ministry and state-owned enterprise with only a single exception: SARS, ironically, curiously, and unaccountably, remains fully functional.
Whereas South Africa was previously self-sufficient in the production of foot and mouth vaccines, it is now reliant on supplies from Biogenesis Bago of Argentina, from which Minister of Agriculture Steenhuisen expects five million doses to arrive this month. Additional supplies may also be sourced from Turkey.
The other sad reflection concerns the role of the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA). Established in February 2018 as an entity of the Department of Health, it is a proxy of the World Health Organisation (WHO), whose policy is global control of all health issues, thereby superseding the sovereignty of nations in that regard. As was very evident during the Covid plandemic, SAHPRA adhered to the unscientific protocols the WHO laid down, which included demonising and outlawing the proven efficacy of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
Had Onderstepoort been fully functional, the straightforward rollout of foot and mouth vaccines would have been a foregone conclusion. But now the process is in the hands of SAHPRA’s bureaucracy as it weighs the issuing of permits for the vaccines imported from Biogenesis Bago in Argentina. What for? To waste more time? That company has a proven record of being world-class in animal health research and the production of vaccines, supplying them to over 60 countries.
While Minister Steenhuisen’s hands are tied as a result of the SAHPRA bureaucracy, the extent of its role in cramping the availability of foot and mouth vaccines has immensely aggravated the circumstances livestock owners face. | DR DUNCAN DU BOIS Bluff
DAILY NEWS