South African farmers fear devastation as foot-and-mouth takes hold

The peace of lush, rural landscape in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province disguises the anxiety that is stalking the land. This is the epicentre of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak that has – in the past year – swept across eight of the country’s nine provinces, devastating animal herds, with many cattle being killed to halt its spread. Farmers are fearful that they could lose their livelihoods altogether as other countries take action and stop the import of South African animal products.

The highly contagious virus, passed through direct animal contact or in contaminated feed or water, causes painful blisters inside the mouth and under the hooves of animals such as goats, cows and sheep, and can lead to lameness and problems feeding. It lowers their yields and also sometimes kills young animals but is not harmful to humans. The current situation in South Africa has now been declared a national disaster.

Despite being a relatively small part of the economy, agriculture is a key employer in rural areas and in normal times provides vital foreign exchange through meat and livestock exports. KwaZulu-Natal is the heartland of the country’s dairy industry. Farms, with their cows grazing on the grass, dot the green hills lining the Mooi River.

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Here, biosecurity measures such as disinfection points at farm entrances designed to prevent the spread of the virus as well as roadblocks and restrictions on the movement of cattle, have not always worked. The herd at the large commercial farm run by Carol Houston and her husband became infected last month. “We received a call from our staff that 50 cows were showing signs of mastitis and were hobbling, struggling to walk. We did all we could to keep the disease out and spent roughly $380 (£280) per cow on treatment [including antibiotics],” Houston tells the BBC.

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