Western Cape government welcomes proposal to expand production of South Africa’s FMD vaccine [SOUND]

# The Western Cape government has welcomed Minister of Agriculture Willie Aucamp’s proposal to allow qualifying private sector companies access to the Agricultural Research Council’s intellectual property relating to foot-and-mouth disease vaccines. The ARC vaccine is a very effective defence against the domestic FMD strains; however, due to manufacturing constraints, the research council is currently not able to manufacture its vaccine at scale. MEC of Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism, Ivan Meyer, says this proposal recognises that the fight against FMD requires a whole-of-sector approach: