Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak report
Introduction and summary
South Africa currently has three Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak events in the previously FMD-free zone without vaccination. These three outbreak events currently comprise 192 open outbreaks reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH founded as OIE). South Africa has so far resolved 22 infected premises in the three FMD outbreak events and closed them with the WOAH.
The first outbreak event started in May 2021 and mainly affected KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province, with limited spread to Free State Province. The second outbreak event started in March 2022 in the previous FMD-free zone in Limpopo Province, with limited spread to Gauteng Province. The third outbreak event also started in March 2022 in the North West Province (linked to the second outbreak event in Limpopo Province) with spread to Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and Free State Provinces.
There are two viruses responsible for the current three outbreak events:
o SAT 2 serotype in outbreak event 1 (KwaZulu-Natal – Free State)
o SAT 3 serotype in outbreak event 2 (Limpopo – Gauteng) and outbreak event 3 (North West – Gauteng – Mpumalanga – Free State)
