Speaking at the foot-and-mouth disease Indaba in Pretoria, Steenhuisen said the country needed to deal differently with the viral disease that mainly affects cloven-hoofed animals.

He said the national vaccine bank was depleted when the recent outbreak hit, forcing the department to import doses from Botswana.

Steenhuisen wants the vaccine bank to be co-funded.

" We are calling on the livestock industry, especially the red meat, dairy, and game sectors, to begin by partnering with us on vaccine procurement. 

"This doesn't mean you have to put in place extensive measures to manage cold chains or manage the vaccines, but it does mean that, like in other aggro industries, we establish a structured partnership that ensures that we are not caught unprepared again.”

He said the department also needs to step up efforts to enforce patrols, particularly in protection zones across KZN, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga.

“It's impossible for provincial and local government to roadblock every single route in or out of an area. And sadly, as we've seen in cases over the course of the last few months, people find a way to move animals out of disease management areas.

"When the sale of that animal is a difference between whether that family can eat that week or school fees could be paid that week, or income could be brought into the household.”

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