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Two weeks ago, animals in the Augrabies region of the Northern Cape tested positive for Rift Valley Fever (RVF). Since then, a wide range of reports have covered the outbreak, and farmers are constantly warned by veterinarians to preemptively vaccinate their animals against the disease as part of their herd health programme.
But what about the wool?
Following the confirmed outbreak, many concerned farmers from that area have raised queries regarding the handling of their greasy wool with reference to a confirmed RVF outbreak. Cape Wools SA has this advice to offer:
- RVF is listed as a notifiable animal disease in terms of the Animal Diseases Act, 1984 (Act 35 of 1984).
- This means that the occurrence or suspected occurrence of the disease must be reported by stakeholders (producers, private veterinarians, etc.) to the state veterinary authorities.
- Final confirmation would follow, and the locality of the outbreaks must be reported to the National Department of Agriculture (NDA).
- When the NDA reports outbreaks to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), it positions the outbreak at district level, and this appears in the disease outbreak report on WOAH’s website.
- The identified district is captured into the eVerify system, which is the industry’s digitised compliance, verification and certification system that also draws information from the Cape Wools database.
- The producer numbers that originate from this district are then matched to the identified district.
- RVF is one of the many aspects addressed in the current import permits for exporting South African greasy wool to China and Uruguay.
- This requirement is stated as follows: “To the best of my knowledge and belief, did not come from a farm/district that had reported RVF in the 3 months prior to shearing”.
- Since it is impossible to independently verify the exact shearing dates on every farm, it has been agreed –in consultation with the certifying veterinary authority – that greasy wool from districts with confirmed RVF cases will be ring-fenced at an export-approved brokerage for a period of 92 days following weigh-in.
- eVerify also notifies the buyers of the lots of wool which are affected and provides data on an ongoing basis as to when each lot will become compliant for export.
- In this way, only wool that originates from producers in districts where RVF cases are internationally confirmed will be affected.
- By implementing these measures, the impact of RVF outbreaks on producers is limited as much as possible while protecting our export markets. – Cape Wools SA press release, reworked by Plaas Media
