Siphelele Nketo
A VACCINE rollout aimed to manage foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has reached the 52% mark in KwaZulu-Natal.
This is according to a statement by the KZN Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in which the department’s MEC, Thembeni kaMadlopha-Mthethwa, commended the teams for their sterling work since the start of the programme in February.
She said the target for vaccination rollout for the province’s cattle was around 80%.
“We are almost there in terms of vaccinations. Our target is to cover about 80% of the province’s cattle. We are winning the war against FMD in the province,” she said.
In KZN, mass vaccine operations have covered seven districts, namely uGu, Harry Gwala, uMkhanyakude, Zululand, uMgungundlovu, eThekwini and uThukela districts.
In the uThukela district, the teams inoculated 204 000 cattle against the disease across 310 dip tanks. This exceeds the district’s cattle census of 196 000, demonstrating strong participation by farmers.
The four remaining districts are King Cetshwayo, iLembe, uMzinyathi and Amajuba districts. The department announced that vaccination operations are expected to resume simultaneously on July 22 at the King Cetshwayo and iLembe districts.
