South Africa Secures 1.5M Foot-and-Mouth Vaccines from Turkey

(MENAFN) South Africa has secured a critical 1.5 million doses of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccines from Turkey, the government confirmed Sunday, bolstering a nationwide inoculation campaign racing to contain an outbreak declared a national emergency just weeks ago.

The Department of Agriculture said the shipment — held up by recent Middle East tensions — is already being fast-tracked into the country's national distribution network, according to local media reports.

Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen hailed the delivery as a significant milestone in the country's battle against the crippling disease.

"We are taking decisive action to protect our national herd. Every outbreak will be dealt with swiftly, and we will continue our efforts until South Africa is FMD-free," Steenhuisen said, calling the arrival "another win in our fight against FMD."

The Turkish consignment builds on one million doses received from Argentina last week. On Friday, the government formally launched its nationwide vaccination drive, aimed at shielding the livestock sector and the wider agricultural economy from further devastation.

The scale of the crisis is stark. The Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy recorded 24,400 FMD cases in domestic livestock across the country in 2025 alone, with confirmed outbreaks spanning eight of South Africa's nine provinces. In early February, authorities designated the situation a national disaster.

With millions of additional doses expected in the coming months, South Africa is also investing in long-term self-sufficiency. The Agricultural Research Council has launched domestic vaccine production at a current rate of 20,000 doses per week, with an ambitious target to scale that output tenfold — to 200,000 doses per week — by 2027.

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