MBABANE – Eswatini has officially lost its long-standing foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) merit status with European markets.
This is due to the country’s proposed nationwide mass vaccination programme forced by the current outbreak of FMD.
The Ministry of Agriculture confirmed during a high-level briefing that the mass vaccination was a move aimed at shifting Eswatini into the ‘FMD-free with vaccination’ category – a status that still allows international trade, albeit under stricter conditions and increased competition.
Minister for Agriculture Mandla Tshawuka said the country had no choice but to adopt this route if it wanted to return to global markets as quickly as possible.
“We need to conquer this disease in order to be able to apply for international trade,” Tshawuka said. “The application for international trade is categorised into two sections – free from FMD with vaccination and free from FMD without vaccination. The category focused on without vaccination is the best, which is where the country had been categorised under for the longest time and enabled us to trade easily with other countries.”
He said, unfortunately, Eswatini had reached a level where it could no longer remain under the ‘without vaccination’ category.
“Now we have to aim for being under the other category of free from FMD with vaccination,” he said.
The minister explained that the ‘free without vaccination’ status had given Eswatini a major advantage in international markets, particularly in the European Union (EU), where only a small number of countries qualify for that category. The loss of this status means the country must now renegotiate access under the ‘free with vaccination’ framework.
“We have lost the merit status, but we can still get the first-class status, which is free with vaccination,” Tshawuka said. “First class still allows us to trade internationally, and looking at that, we have opted for mass vaccination in order to apply for the free with vaccination trade. This is a shorter route of taking us back to international trade rather than choosing the longer route, which is awaiting the slaughtering or killing of all vaccinated cattle, which might take a while.”
FMD Control Unit Focal Person in the Ministry of Agriculture Dr Thembi Ndlangamandla echoed the minister’s remarks, stating that while the change in status was a setback, it did not mean the end of international trade for Eswatini.
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SA undergoing similar struggles – minister
MBABANE – Minister for Agriculture Mandla Tshawuka has shared how the Minister for Agriculture in South Africa has lamented over undergoing similar struggles in dealing with FMD.
“In South Africa, they are currently grappling with three strains of the disease, which are SAT 1, SAT 2 and SAT 3,” he said.
“We hope that the strains in our country will not go past SAT 2, but there is a possibility that the third strain is now present.”
He said in South Africa, SAT 3 was more prevalent, which made it critical for vaccine producers to match vaccines to the circulating virus.
“This means that those who produce these vaccines should match them to the virus which is infiltrating the country, hence the importance of being on the ground in order to formulate appropriate vaccines,” he said.
He said in discussions with South African Minister for Agriculture John Steenhuisen, both countries had acknowledged that the movement of livestock and smuggling of meat were major challenges.
*Full article available on Pressreader*
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