Access to international and regional markets for beef has been an on-going problem for southern
African countries for many decades because the South African Territories (SAT) serotypes of
foot and mouth disease (FMD) viruses are endemic to wildlife populations in the southern
African region. This makes establishment of FMD-free zones, essential for accessing high-value
beef markets difficult, expensive and impractical for many locations in southern Africa. For that
reason commercialization of livestock production in the region has been inhibited.
The creation of FMD-free zones which requires use of artificial or natural boundaries and in
southern Africa it has been the construction of veterinary cordon fences (VCFs) to separate
animal populations of different FMD status which has proven successful in some countries (such
as Botswana, Namibia & South Africa) but not in others for a variety of reasons, i.e. the current
model has only been possible for a small proportion of cattle producers in southern Africa. This
means that apart from the damaging effects that some VCFs have had or have on the
environment generally and wildlife conservation in particular, only roughly 15% of the cattle
population in the mainland countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
are raised in FMD-free zones. For balanced rural development of the SADC Region, where cattle
are culturally and economically vital to the indigenous inhabitants and wildlife conservation and
associated economic activities are important contributors to regional gross domestic product, it is
essential to improve access to regional and international markets for beef and other animal
products produced in locations outside FMD-free zones.
The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has introduced a partially non-geographic
FMD standard for trade in deboned beef (viz. Terrestrial Animal Health Code Article 8.8.22) that
potentially overcomes this problem; however, Article 8.8.22 contains at least one killer
requirement that makes its implementation impossible. The issues associated with this problem
have been identified in this study and possible solutions proposed. An attempt was made to gauge acceptance by SADC Member States but the responses to the
questionnaire used were inadequate to reach a reliable conclusion in this respect. It was
concluded that taking technical, logistical and financial constraints into account, non-geographic
approaches represent the best opportunity that SADC countries have of expanding access to
regional and international markets. Moreover, it is suggested that non-geographic approaches
could be integrated into the Standard Methods and Procedures in Animal Health (SMP-AH)
Programme once adopted by SADC, thereby strengthening the capacity of the Region s
competent authorities. SMP-AH Programme is at a proposal stage and has not been officially
launched in SADC. The SMP AH Programme proposes to harmonize activities of animal health
authorities of SADC Member States in respect of selected diseases that impact trade and/or
human health. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / tm2016 / Veterinary Tropical Diseases / MSc
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/53308 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Palime, Mosiuoa Zachariah |
| Contributors | Thomson, G.R. (Gavin), palimemz@gmail.com, Coetzer, Jacobus A.W. |
| Publisher | University of Pretoria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Rights | © 2016 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
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