Andrew Morphew - SA’s FMD plan fails as vaccinated animals become infected…

South African farmers are furious with the State's failures in its handling of the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak and vaccination programme. In this interview with Chris Steyn, Andrew Morphew, the spokesperson for FMD Response SA says: “We are seeing the virus is continuing to spread. There's Foot and Mouth outbreaks being reported regularly. But the more concerning thing for us now is that we are finding vaccinated herds… are now being infected even post vaccination. And that is an indication as to the failure of the roll-out plan and purely because we're not covering complete areas at the same time…And we're allowing unvaccinated animals to stay in areas around vaccinated populations.” Morphew says the only way to stop the spread is for the entire South African population to be vaccinated in six to eight weeks. Morphew details the severe financial losses being suffered by farmers. “We are desperate to engage with the Minister… we don't fully understand why there's now a barrier to taking the next step and doing what needs to be done to actually fundamentally fix the problem and put a system in place or a plan in place with dates and timelines and vaccine schedules…it is fundamental that the government and the private sector now start to talk and get around the table and figure out how we actually make this happen”.