Speaking in Swartkopfontein in North West Province on Tuesday, near the SA and Botswana border, Steenhuisen said the Department of Agriculture is working closely with its regional counterparts to develop a unified response across southern Africa.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Steenhuisen and Botswana\u2019s Acting Minister of Agriculture, Onnetse Ramogapi, jointly led the department\u2019s fifth nationwide mass vaccination campaign in the area. The campaign targets high\u2011risk zones where communal livestock farming is widespread and cross\u2011border animal movement is difficult to control. Farmers in the North West have expressed concern that communal herds are particularly vulnerable to the spread of foot\u2011and\u2011mouth disease, given porous borders and limited biosecurity infrastructure in rural areas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Both SA and Botswana authorities stressed that stronger coordination and shared strategies are critical to preventing further outbreaks. \u201cWe do need to work together if we are going to combat foot\u2011and\u2011mouth disease in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region,\u201d Steenhuisen said. \u201cWe will be convening a SADC foot\u2011and\u2011mouth disease meeting in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said the planned meeting would bring together affected countries to agree on a common approach to prevention, control and rapid response. \u201cOne of the key discussions will be how we develop a regional vaccine bank,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt must not matter where the outbreak occurs. We need to ensure vaccines are available and can be deployed quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–SABC\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":31040,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44,26],"class_list":["post-31039","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South Africa\u2019s (SA) Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, says closer regional cooperation is essential to curb the ongoing foot\u2011and\u2011mouth disease outbreak, warning that transboundary livestock movement continues to pose a serious biosecurity risk.\r\n","published_date":"","news_description":"South Africa\u2019s (SA) Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, says closer regional cooperation is essential to curb the ongoing foot\u2011and\u2011mouth disease outbreak, warning that transboundary livestock movement continues to pose a serious biosecurity risk.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31041,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31039\/revisions\/31041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=31039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}