Botswana’s position as Southern Africa’s leading supplier of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccines has come under pressure after production disruptions at the Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI) forced South Africa to source supplies from Argentina during one of the region’s most significant livestock disease outbreaks.
South African Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen revealed this week that delays in vaccine deliveries from BVI disrupted the country’s vaccination programme, leaving authorities with little option but to seek alternative international suppliers to protect its cattle population.
Speaking during his department’s Budget Vote debate, Steenhuisen said South Africa had been unable to receive its expected vaccine consignments from Botswana and was therefore compelled to source equivalent vaccines elsewhere.
“When we were unable to receive our consignment from Botswana, we had to look elsewhere,” Steenhuisen said.
South Africa subsequently secured supplies from Biogénesis Bagó and Turkish vaccine producer Dollvetafter confirming that the vaccines matched the strains circulating in the country. The first shipment from Argentina reportedly consisted of 3.5 million doses, making it the largest single FMD vaccine consignment ever imported by South Africa.
The lost order represents a missed commercial opportunity for Botswana at a time when regional demand for FMD vaccines is reaching record levels.
The delays were linked to a mandatory production shutdown for maintenance and sterilisation at BVI’s facilities. The interruption followed earlier compliance-related challenges that had temporarily affected exports to South Africa.
South Africa has procured vaccine supplies worth approximately R1.6 billion from BVI. The Department of Agriculture initially secured a bulk order of 900,000 doses valued at R72 million (P54.9 million), while the private sector, coordinated through the Red Meat Industry Services, supplemented the order with an additional 644,000-dose consignment and a separate batch of 70,000 doses.
While the immediate impact was the loss of vaccine sales, the episode has also highlighted a broader challenge facing Southern Africa’s livestock sector: demand is increasingly outpacing regional production capacity.
Former BVI chief executive officer Andrew Madeswi recently revealed that countries across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) require at least 43 million doses of FMD vaccine annually to control outbreaks and protect livestock populations. By comparison, BVI’s optimal production capacity is about 25 million doses a year.
The figures suggest a regional shortfall of nearly 18 million doses, a gap that has become more apparent as outbreaks continue to spread across several countries.
Pressure on BVI has intensified over the past year as governments across the region have increased vaccine procurement. South Africa has emerged as one of the institute’s largest customers, alongside Zambia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini and Mozambique. During the current financial year, BVI supplied approximately 3.8 million doses across the region, with South Africa accounting for the largest share. However, demand continues to grow faster than available production capacity.
The South African government has since launched its largest FMD vaccination campaign on record. According to Steenhuisen, authorities have procured more than 13.5 million vaccine doses since February 2026 and committed approximately R494 million toward vaccine procurement and deployment.
Existing production capacity remains insufficient to meet future regional demand. Although BVI remains one of Africa’s most important animal vaccine manufacturers, the institute has acknowledged that its facilities are operating under considerable strain.
To address these constraints, BVI is investing in a fully automated blending and filling laboratory that is expected to increase annual production capacity from approximately 25 million doses to around 30 million doses.
Even with the planned expansion, however, regional demand is expected to remain well above available supply as large-scale vaccination campaigns and emergency disease-control responses continue to outpace the manufacturing capacity of regional producers such as BVI.
Ironically, South Africa’s decision to source vaccines from Argentina comes as Botswana and South Africa deepen cooperation on animal health management. The two countries recently signed a Joint Action Plan covering the 2026-2028 period aimed at strengthening border biosecurity measures and coordinating disease-control programmes.
