The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Senior Officials Meeting on Agriculture, Food Security, Fisheries and Aquaculture convened a dedicated session in Victoria Falls to address the escalating Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in the SADC region.
The session reflected growing concern that the disease has moved beyond a veterinary issue to become a direct threat to food security, rural livelihoods, and intra-regional trade.
The meeting acknowledged that Foot and Mouth Disease is a socio-economic and livelihood risk, not only to animal health problem, but also as a threat to livestock-based livelihood, food security, market access and regional economic resilience.
This dedicated session comes almost two months after the SADC Council of Ministers meeting held in March 2026 in Pretoria, South Africa, urged Member States to accelerate a coordinated regional response to including strengthened cross-border surveillance, harmonised vaccination strategies, enhanced information sharing, and resource mobilisation.
The session featured presentations from Dr. Elma Zanamwe, Project Coordinator STOSAR, Dr Keabetswe Moagabo, Acting Chief Executive Officer for Botswana Vaccine Institute and Dr. Montserrat Aroyo, Deputy Director of the World Organisation for Animal Health who called for aa coordinated approach to sustainably manage this disease and other priority transboundary diseases that impact both food security and regional trade.
They emphasised that control of Foot and Mouth Disease should be framed as a regional investment in livestock resilience, trade continuity and rural economic stability.
Dr. Emily Mogajane, Chief Director for the Biosecurity Coordination in the Department of Agriculture of the Republic of South Africa shared the country’s experiences and measures aimed at containing the Foot and Mouth Disease, highlighting the need for strengthened surveillance, movement control and vaccination.
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