Biosecurity is the ultimate system test for South Africa’s red meat industry

01The cost of a broken system

If one theme dominated the Agri X Fusion Red Meat Value Chain Collaboration Summit, it was biosecurity. Dr David Gerber of Dunevax Biotech put numbers to the problem: foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) puts more than R97 billion of beef, dairy, sheep and pork production value at risk, beef export volumes fell by 26% from 2024 to 2025, and projected five-year losses for beef and dairy exceed R13 billion.

Gerhard van der Burgh of BFAP added that FMD-linked beef export losses have already passed R1.29 billion, while provincial veterinary services face a funding shortfall of more than R1.4 billion against what South Africa’s own veterinary strategy requires.

“We have a broken system and we have to fix it,” Dr Gerber said. The common thread, in his analysis, is not a lack of plans but a lack of implementation: unclear chains of command, weak early warning, movement that isn’t contained, and plans written but not carried through.

02The Minister’s message: vaccinate, and open the doors

In his video message to the Agri X Fusion Red Meat Value Chain Collaboration Summit, the Minister of Agriculture, Willie Aucamp, put it simply: trade in animal products and biosecurity are interlinked. “If we show the world that our animals are healthy and our farms comply with the highest biosecurity standards, the doors of global markets will open wide for our meat industry.”

He reported that government aims to vaccinate at least 80% of the national herd against FMD by December, has procured more than 22 million vaccine doses, and that the Agricultural Research Council’s board has agreed to his request to make its FMD vaccine intellectual property available to qualified private manufacturers, so that more vaccine can be produced in the long run.

03Biosecurity happens at every level

Dr Botlhe Modisane, Chief Director: Animal Production & Health at the Department of Agriculture, explained that disease control works in layers: on the farm, in controlled zones that contain outbreaks, through managed animal movement, and at national level to protect trade. Managing it, he said, takes industry and government working together, with traceability systems and industry input into policy.

Francois Knowles of the Agricultural Produce Agents Council (APAC) made the same point from a regulatory angle: compliance cannot begin when a crisis occurs. Preparedness, prevention and shared responsibility have to be in place before the next outbreak.

04What the panel said

Dr Botlhe Modisane explained that biosecurity has three parts, bio-exclusion, bio-containment and bio-management, and that it applies at country, province and farm level. “We have to prove to our trading partners that we do have an official traceability system,” he said. Government has already spent more than a billion rand on FMD vaccines, and with the 2016–2026 Veterinary Strategy now ending, his plan is to review what was not implemented and carry it forward together with the private sector.

Dr Gerber summed up the problem in one line: “No virus has ever asked a minister for advice. The virus doesn’t follow provincial boundaries.” His challenge was to judge progress by results rather than plans, with transparent public targets. Panel facilitator Dr Riaan du Preez added: “If we say we want to implement the veterinary strategy, please let it not be a ten-year project.”

Francois Knowles stressed that biosecurity always starts at farm level, that auctions are a critical control point, and that in a crisis, rapid access to timely, verifiable information is key. Prof Webb pointed out that New Zealand has kept biosecurity as its highest research priority for 16 years running, and warned against the mental model that “shared threats can be managed individually”.

05Traceability is already being built

Industry isn’t starting from zero. RMIS reported that more than 15 000 production units are already registered with GS1 Global Location Numbers, forming the base of a growing digital ecosystem: a public FMD outbreak map, anonymous alerts to farms within 30 km of an outbreak, a vaccine-ordering portal and a free app linked to 18 record-keeping systems.

06A roadmap from crisis to resilience

Dr Gerber proposed a staged roadmap: within 100 days, decisions and one national lead with command authority; within a year, delivery of animal identification, tracking and movement control; and within five years, an integrated national animal-health system. “Policy decides; law empowers,” he said. Decisions must precede structures, and execution needs a continuous cycle of command, control and correction.

Kobus Bester of Simbra highlighted a less visible gap: South Africa does not currently have facilities to screen for and monitor BSE (mad cow disease) in a way that meets regulatory compliance, and funding that capacity is a challenge. “Industry needs to come together to find a way.”

07One Health: animals, people and ecosystems

Dr Riaan du Preez of MSD Animal Health widened the lens. 58% of human infectious diseases are zoonotic, and weak disease surveillance costs the world an estimated $212 billion a year. Early, animal-phase surveillance saves lives and costs, which is why he called for a climate-smart One Health approach.

Prof Edward Webb of the University of Pretoria described biosecurity as “the ultimate system test”. Animal health ranks as the most prominent risk in the red meat value chain, and a failure in one part of the system quickly becomes everyone’s problem.