Vietnam said  it has had initial success in creating a vaccine to fight African swine fever, which has infected farms throughout the Southeast Asian country and prompted the culling of around 10% of its pig herd.

My herd has been vaccinated. I did not choose the vaccine. In South Africa, that choice is not yours to make. The state selects the product. The state controls the supply. You take what arrives.

ven at their most effective – and draconian – containment strategies have only slowed the spread of the respiratory disease Covid-19. With the World Health Organization finally declaring a pandemic, all eyes have turned to the prospect of a vaccine, because only a vaccine can prevent people from getting sick.

In a scathing critique of the Department of Agriculture’s handling of South Africa’s Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) crisis, ActionSA MP Athol Trollip lamented the government’s centralised control of the outbreak.