JOHANNESBURG - The red meat industry is on high alert.
A Foot-and-Mouth Disease outbreak is spreading, with confirmed cases in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Gauteng.
Now, the Red Meat Industry Services has set up a dedicated operations centre.
It will monitor and mount a full-scale, time-bound response to the threat.
READ: SA's biggest beef producer hit by foot-and-mouth disease
Just last week, Karan Beef, one of the biggest producers, detected the disease at its Heidelberg facility.
Dewald Olivier, CEO of Red Meat Industry Services, said vaccinations have started.
"It seems like the spread within the Karan Beef lot has slowed down a little bit, and it also seems like an outbreak in Vosloorus is also slowing down," Olivier said.
"It's going fairly well at this stage, we're just waiting for vaccines to arrive from Botswana, and then we can start with full-scale vaccination of the cattle."