Farmers have taken to using illegally acquired vaccines to prevent sheep dying from bluetongue disease due to a severe shortage of vaccines produced by state-run Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP).
The Red Meat Producers Organisation (RPO) said the shortage of the vaccines is threatening food security through the death of livestock.
“The shortage of strategic vaccines in the livestock and animal industries has now caused a state of disaster in the red meat industry,” RPO chair James Faber said.
The OBP is the only producer of African horse sickness and Rift Valley fever vaccines, as well as vaccines for bluetongue disease, which mostly affects sheep and cattle. Outdated and broken manufacturing equipment has led to constant delays in the production of these vaccines.
“Commercial and emerging producers are now suffering serious losses due to bluetongue outbreaks, which cause up to 50% mortality among herds, and African horse sickness among horses and donkeys,” Faber said, adding that the RPO had predicted and warned this would happen.
“It is tragic and this could have been prevented if the proposed feasible action steps had been taken by the authorities. We feel the authorities have let the industry down.”
Aware of the problems at OBP, agriculture minister Thoko Didiza asked drug manufacturer Aspen, which produces human vaccines, to help the OBP with technical and engineering expertise related to certain production processes. It has done so, Stavros Nicolaou, group senior executive at Aspen Pharma, confirmed to Business Day.
The ANC government has run this organisation into the ground.
— Noko Masipa
DA agriculture spokesperson
Agriculture department spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo said some of the OBP vaccine production lines are now up and running.
OBP is investigating the possibility of asking private manufacturers to make these products. Private manufacturers of the bluetongue and African horse sickness vaccine are allowed to do this.
However, Ngcobo said only one private manufacturer has applied to the registrar to produce the bluetongue vaccine, and its application did not comply with the regulatory requirements.
There have been issues at OBP for years, DA agriculture spokesperson Noko Masipa said. It “used to be an internationally recognised entity in terms of animal vaccines production [and] research & development. However, the ANC government has run this organisation into the ground.”
Because the entity failed to repair and maintain its equipment, the production capacity to make bluetongue and African horse sickness vaccines is gone, he added.
The issue facing the private sector, Masipa said, is that it can take three to five years to develop vaccines appropriate for the SA strains of the diseases and another three to five years for regulatory approval. It is neither cost-effective nor feasible for the private sector to do so.
But Masipa said OBP, which owns the intellectual property of the vaccines, should ask the private sector to manufacture them under licence while the state retains the intellectual property rights. He has started a petition on the issue.
The RPO said the National Animal Health Forum (NAHF), a group of veterinarians and animal producers, met with the agriculture minister on March 30 and a committee was formed to make proposals on the vaccine shortages by April 28. It said the committee has yet to meet.
While sheep and horses are dying painful deaths, the RPO said there is insufficient urgency by the government to deal with the issue.
The RPO said the NAHF suggests that vaccines must be produced by more than one service provider, and capacity at the officer of the registrar must be improved to process new vaccine and medication applications. It also said vaccines from OBP should be produced with the help of the private sector.
“Though it is already too late, everything possible must be done to prevent national pandemics,” said Faber.
Ngcobo said Didiza has identified extra capacity to assist the registrar office that reviews drug company applications to make vaccines and she meets regularly with the NAHF about issues facing the animal sector.
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