FMD outbreaks increase demand for vaccines as BVI calls state of emergency
As the threat of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) looms large over BW’s beef industry, Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI) has declared a state of production emergency at its plant.
Speaking to Voice Money, BVI Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Andrew Madeswi admitted that as the sole manufacturer of the FMD vaccine in the region, the institute is feeling the strain.
“The outbreaks are an outright risk to the socio- economic fabric of our nation. We have recently declared our facility to be under Emergency Production Status, which is allowing us to activate measures necessary to respond effectively to the current FMD situation in our region. Under the current FMD situation in the region, there cannot be enough vaccines hence we are constantly engaging with our customers for us to align priorities that will enable effective response in prioritising areas of FMD outbreaks in the region, including Botswana,” revealed Madeswi.
As it stands, BVI has the capacity to produce 25 million doses of the FMD vaccine a year. This will soon be bumped up to around 30 million, with a state-of-the-art fully automated blending and filling laboratory currently under construction. A P300 investment, work on the new lab is expected to be completed within the next financial year (2026/27).
Since April last year, BVI has sold 1.6 million doses to South Africa, 1.3 million to Zambia, a further 384, 100 to Zimbabwe, 308, 800 to Eswatini while Mozambique purchased 116, 200.
Botswana, though, has only vaccinated 72, 000 cattle in that time.
By 12th February, government had slaughtered 83 cattle and 13 goats which crossed into FMD red zones and posed a risk to Botswana.
Quizzed on why the country continues to experience frequent FMD outbreaks despite huge efforts and vaccination campaigns to combat the disease, Madeswi explained, “There are several factors that are far and wide but we can emphasise that FMD vaccination does not offer lifetime immunity and other contributing factors are as a result of animal movements, multiple serotypes and interaction with the wildlife, amongst others.”
BVI Head of Quality Management, Keabetswe Moagabo added they have been to South Africa, Eswatini and Namibia on ‘engagement missions’ in the fight against FMD.
“We have reviewed our process to become more efficient and we are frequently engaging with our customers. When there is an outbreak we go and collect samples and identify the virus and check if that virus can be protected by what we have – then we can produce a vaccine for you. We also have historical data apart from the latest we collect. We don’t make vaccines without studying the virus strain,” said Moagabo.
On 2 February, the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture announced an FMD outbreak in Jackalas No.1 village, with further cases confirmed in Moroka, Nlapkhwane and Mulambakwena crushes.
This resulted in movement and slaughter of cloven hoofed livestock being temporarily halted, with Chobe and Ngamiland the only districts exempted.
The ban was partly lifted last Tuesday, with government easing the restrictions for both social gatherings and meat selling businesses.
