Private institutions to be approached to produce FMD vaccine: Aucamp

Agriculture Minister Willie Aucamp says private institutions will be approached to produce a Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine that is appropriate for the country .

Aucamp, alongside department officials, briefed Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on the latest developments in the mass FMD vaccination programme .

He says 21 million vaccines have been imported so far from Turkey and Argentina.

Currently, the Agricultural Research Council can only produce 20,000 of the vaccines, while approximately 2.5 million vaccines are needed per month.

Aucamp says, in an effort to overcome this problem, private manufacturers will be called to come on board.

“ The ARC (Agricultural Research Council) production capacity is not nearly enough for our needs.

Therefore, collectively agreed with the ARC board that we will get private institutions to manufacture this vaccine, while simultaneously increasing the capacity of the ARC.” #FMDUpdate | A proposal by the Minister of Agriculture, Willie Aucamp, to allow qualifying private companies to make use of the ARC’s intellectual property (IP) regarding Foot and mouth disease (FMD) vaccines and for them to join in manufacturing the ARC’s FMD vaccine at a large… pic.twitter.com/jAf3dFzrgO — National Department of Agriculture (@DOAgov_ZA) September 22, 2026 Meanwhile, Deputy Director General of Agriculture, responsible for agriculture production, Dipepeneneng Serage says the country’s Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) mass vaccination programme is painting a positive picture.

Serage says in most provinces a positive picture is unfolding.

“We think the mass vaccination strategy has taken effect.

We are seeing tell-tale signs of progress, vaccination does work.

Albeit that there are some breakthroughs, scientists tell us that it is not uncommon for some animals not to respond to the vaccines.”