Free State Agriculture urges Steenhuisen to take action as the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak worsens

The Free State Agriculture (FSA) interest group has called on Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen to take immediate action to tackle the current outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

The sector saw the worst outbreak of the disease for most of 2025 and early 2026.

The outbreak started in KwaZulu-Natal and has now spread across the country. Provinces such as the Free State, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and the North West are among the worst affected.

The minister has announced plans to launch a vaccination drive next month.

But commercial manager at the FSA, Dr Jack Armour, said this was not good enough.

Armor said the minister had to take action now.

“The minister needs to take this seriously given the amount of livestock that are dying, so it is an economic crisis and could potentially be a food security crisis. There will be a rollout plan and other things, but at the moment the Free State has no vaccines.”