South Africa releases first locally produced foot-and-mouth disease vaccine by Agricultural Research Council (ARC)

Key facts

• Agricultural Research Council (ARC) released the first batch of South Africa’s locally produced foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine developed at ARC-Onderstepoort.
• The initial batch comprises 12 900 multi-strain doses produced by the ARC Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute (ARC OVI) Transboundary Animal Diseases Campus.
• The vaccine is registered as a stock remedy under the Fertilizers, Farm Feeds, Seeds and Remedies Act (No. 36 of 1947) and meets required quality, safety and efficacy standards.
• Local production enables faster outbreak response, closer strain matching to regional circulating viruses, and improved supply control.
• Since 2019 the outbreak has spread to eight of South Africa’s nine provinces, severely disrupting the commercial livestock value chain.
• Milk South Africa (Milk SA) welcomed the 12 900 doses but warned volumes fall far short of national requirements and urged rapid scale-up of both domestic and imported vaccines.