The new FMD control measures: what they actually require of you

First, who this applies to

Read the scope carefully, because it is easy to over- or under-react. Some duties apply to everyone, all the time — reporting a suspicion, for instance. Others apply to premises that are infected, suspected of infection, or that have been vaccinated — the register and traceability duties in clause 12 are written that way. But the practical point cuts across both: the records you would need are the ones you cannot build after the state vet arrives at your gate. They only exist if you were already keeping them.

1. Report a suspicion the same day — and act immediately

Clause 4.1 is unambiguous: any suspicion of FMD must be reported to State Veterinary Services immediately, within the same day, by any person who suspects it. This is a legal requirement under section 11 of the Act. If your own state vet is not available, the measures tell you to notify the provincial director or the national Director of Animal Health directly.

Clause 4.2 then sets out the general duties of an owner who reasonably suspects an animal is infected. You must:

• Immediately report the suspicion under section 11 of the Act.
• Immediately isolate the affected epidemiological unit — defined in the measures as a group of animals separated to prevent nose-to-nose contact.
• Prevent the movement of animals, animal products, equipment or potentially contaminated material.
• Restrict access to the premises.
• Allow access to State Veterinary Services under section 16 of the Act.

The state vet must then visit without undue delay, within 24 hours of being notified, to issue a written quarantine notice, investigate, trace back and forward, and take samples.

2. Keep your vaccination history on a digital platform

This is the change most likely to affect how you work day to day, and it sits in the definitions, where it is easy to miss. The measures define a vaccination history like this:

Read that second sentence again, because it is the one that matters. Proof of vaccination can only be issued from electronically captured data. A vaccination written into a paper notebook may well be a perfectly honest record of what you did — but the measures do not treat it as something that proof can be issued from. And clause 11.3 says vaccinated animals must have documented proof of an adequate and up-to-date vaccination history.

Note also what “adequate” means here: the measures define an adequate vaccination history as a primary vaccination followed by booster vaccinations within the period the manufacturer prescribes — generally at six months. So the due dates matter as much as the doses.

In practice this means four details must be captured for every vaccination: the date, the product, the batch number and the expiry date. The product is the name off the bottle, which is not the same thing as the disease you are vaccinating against — worth being precise about, since it is the detail most often left out.

3. Look after the cold chain — and document how you do it

Clause 11.6 is short and often skimmed: where vaccination is used, the cold chain must be strictly adhered to, and a procedure to do this must be documented, with checks in place to ensure that it can be audited. Two separate obligations sit in that sentence — keeping the vaccine cold, and being able to show how you make sure of it. FMD vaccine that has been too warm can stop working, which means an animal you believe is protected may not be.

4. Identify every animal, and keep the register up to date

Clause 12 deals with identification and traceability, and applies to cloven-hoofed livestock on premises that have been vaccinated, are infected, or are suspected of being infected:

• 12.1 — animals must be individually identified (batch numbers may be used for slaughter pigs) and recorded in a database that ensures lifelong traceability.
• 12.2 — they must be recorded in a register kept up to date with any changes, and a copy must be made available to the local state veterinarian while the premises is under quarantine.
• 12.3 — feedlots, backgrounding operations and speculators must keep an updated stock sheet of all animals in and out, plus mortalities, available for audit by the state vet.

The phrase to sit with is “kept up to date with any changes”. A register is not a once-a-year exercise; it is the running record of births, deaths, movements and sales. That is the part that quietly falls behind.

5. Move stock only with the right paperwork

Under clause 7.4, live cloven-hoofed animals may only move from FMD-quarantined premises with written permission from the state veterinarian, accompanied by a Veterinary Red Cross Permit issued under the Animal Diseases Act. That permit must set out the conditions of the movement and the individual identification numbers of every animal being transported (or batch numbers for slaughter pigs).

And then the sentence that catches people out:

So the permit is not the whole story — your §6/§8 removal certificates, showing your registered brand mark, travel with the consignment as well. Clause 14.1 adds that animals which move must be identified as per 12.1 and recorded on a livestock identification and traceability system.

What this adds up to

Strip out the legal language and the measures ask a livestock owner for four habits:

• Speak up fast. Same-day reporting, then isolate and stop movement.
• Capture vaccinations electronically — date, product, batch number, expiry — because proof can only be issued from electronically captured data.
• Keep the cold chain, and be able to show how.
• Keep the register current, animal by animal, so identification and movement paperwork can be produced on the day it is asked for.

None of that is exotic. The farms that will find an outbreak least disruptive are simply the ones already doing it before anything happens.

How KraalBook helps

KraalBook is a working record book for your phone. You register your cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, and record vaccinations, treatments, births, deaths, movements and sales as you do them — at the crush, offline, syncing when you get signal. From those records it produces the documents: proof of vaccination, the §6/§8 removal certificate, an audit and compliance pack covering the last twelve months, and a per-camp view of which cattle are up to date, due soon or overdue for FMD. The field screens are available in English, Afrikaans and isiZulu, while vaccine and medicine names stay in English so a register reads the same for every vet and inspector. Learn more in the user guide.