FMD Vaccination — What the Law Now Allows, and What You Must Do

What this guide covers: the court order that lets you privately buy and give FMD (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) vaccine to your own cloven-hooved animals — cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and similar — and exactly what you must send to the state vet before and after you do.

What it doesn't cover: moving animals between properties, or reporting a suspected FMD case. Those rules are unchanged and still apply — see Part 6.

Why this exists

In May 2026, the High Court ruled on a case brought by Sakeliga, Suider-Afrika Agri Inisiatief and Free State Agriculture against the Minister of Agriculture and others (Case No. 2026-047152). The short version: government had been stopping farmers from buying FMD vaccine privately and injecting their own animals, but couldn't point to an actual law that banned it. The court agreed there was no such ban, and set out the conditions under which you may now do this yourself.

This is interim relief — the court's own words — which means it's the rule for now, while a final decision is still being worked through the courts. It could change. If it does, this page will be updated the same day, and the date at the top will move.

What you're now allowed to do

If you own or manage cloven-hooved livestock, you may now:

• Buy FMD vaccine yourself, from a supplier who lawfully imported it or lawfully makes it in South Africa.
• Give it to your own animals — yourself, or through someone you arrange, such as a private vet or a trained staff member.

The 5-day notice

You must tell your state vet (officially: the "State Veterinarian" for your area, or the "Provincial Director: Veterinary Services") in writing, at least 5 full days before you give the first injection. Your notice must include:

1. Where you plan to vaccinate, and over what period (a single day is fine, or a date range if it's a big herd).
2. How many animals, and their species, breed, gender and age.
3. Full details of everyone who will actually give the injections — full names, ID numbers, home addresses and phone numbers. This includes you, if you're doing it yourself.
4. Whether this is a first dose or a booster.
5. How you'll keep the vaccine cold from the moment you collect it until you inject it.

The 14-day sworn statement

Within 14 days after you vaccinate, you must give the state vet a sworn statement — a signed affidavit, made in front of a Commissioner of Oaths (a police station, a lawyer's office, or the Post Office can usually do this for free or a small fee). A normal letter is not enough; it must be sworn. It must cover:

1. The full names, ID number, email address and cell phone number of the owner or manager who did the vaccinating — this is you, or whoever on your behalf actually administered it.
2. Exactly how you kept the vaccine cold, step by step, from when you collected it to when you injected it — including the actual temperature.
3. How you gave the injection (the method), matching that vaccine's own instructions.
4. The date and the dose you gave.
5. The vaccine's brand.
6. The type and breed of animal.
7. The gender of each animal.
8. The age of each animal.
9. Each animal's own identification — its eartag, brand, or however else it's individually marked.

Keeping the vaccine cold

FMD vaccine has to stay cold — usually between 2°C and 8°C — from the moment it leaves the supplier until the moment it's injected. This isn't a suggestion; it's a specific thing you must be able to describe in your sworn statement afterwards. In practice that means:

• A proper cooler box or portable fridge, not just an ice-filled bag in the bakkie.
• Knowing roughly how long the vaccine actually spent outside proper refrigeration, and at what temperature.
• Checking the vaccine's own package insert for its exact storage instructions — different brands can differ.

What Agribantu already does — and what's still coming

We're building Agribantu to handle the two forms above for you automatically: filling them in from your own farm records, generating a proper printable notice and sworn statement, and keeping a record of when you sent each one. Here's exactly where that stands, honestly:

The 5-day notice PDF is ready to use today. Open LITS → FMD Vaccination in Agribantu and click "New Campaign." Walk through your holding, the planned location and dates, the animals involved, and who will be doing the vaccinating — Agribantu checks you haven't missed anything the law requires, then generates a printable notice addressed to the correct state vet or provincial director for your holding. Generating the PDF is not the same as sending it. If the responsible official on file has an active Agribantu account, you can now click "Submit Notice to Authority" on the campaign to deliver it directly, in-platform — that delivery is what starts your 5-day countdown. If no such account is on file yet, Agribantu tells you so honestly, and you still need to deliver it yourself (email, hand-delivery, or courier) and record that you did.

Product & batch records are also ready to use today. Open LITS → Products & Batches, select a vaccine batch, and record where you bought it, your storage/temperature readings, and any cold-chain problems along the way. If the temperature or a selected cold-chain log shows a deviation, Agribantu now makes you acknowledge it instead of hiding it — this is exactly the evidence clause 1.4.2 of the order will ask for in your sworn statement, so capturing it now, while you remember the details, saves you having to reconstruct it later.

Recording the actual vaccination is also ready to use today. Open LITS → Field Capture, choose "FMD Vaccination," and Agribantu links the event to your campaign, the exact batch, and the animal (or flags it clearly as not yet ready for the sworn statement if you only record a group). This is the true record of what actually happened out in the field — the clean record your sworn statement is now built from.

The 14-day sworn statement (affidavit) is also ready to use today. Open LITS → FMD Vaccination, select your campaign, and click "Generate Affidavit PDF" once at least one vaccination with a fully identified animal has been recorded. Agribantu fills in your details, the recipient, the vaccination records, and the evidence annexures automatically — but generating the PDF does not mean it has been sworn or submitted. You must still print it and sign it in front of a Commissioner of Oaths. From there, if the responsible official on file has an active Agribantu account, you can upload the signed, commissioned scan and click "Submit Affidavit to Authority" to deliver it directly, in-platform. Otherwise, deliver it yourself and record in Agribantu that you submitted it, which is a separate step either way. Any cold-chain deviation on file is disclosed honestly in the document, not hidden.

Deadline reminders are also live now. Once your notice is generated, once vaccination becomes allowed, and as your 14-day sworn statement's deadline approaches, is due today, or passes, Agribantu notifies your account and your organisation's owner — you don't have to remember the exact dates yourself.

If a genuine emergency means you can't wait out the full 5 days — for example your vet directs immediate vaccination because of a confirmed outbreak nearby — an owner or admin can record a "5-day override" with a written reason. This does not change the 5 days the court order actually requires, and it does not pretend the wait happened; it is recorded, dated, and shown honestly to the Authority as a disclosed exception, exactly as any departure from the order should be.

If you discover a mistake in a sworn statement after you've already submitted it, an owner or admin can generate a corrected version with a reason. Agribantu keeps your original submission on file untouched and clearly labels the correction as a correction — it never quietly overwrites something you already swore to before a Commissioner of Oaths.

Recording where your vaccine supply came from is also ready to use today. Open LITS → Products & Batches, open a batch, and use "Manage Supply Sources" to add the manufacturer, importer, distributor or agent you got it from, then "Record Receipt" to log when it arrived, how much, and the temperature on arrival. This strengthens the evidence behind your sworn statement — Annexure C now names your recorded source when one is on file. Agribantu records this evidence exactly as you enter it; it does not check, approve, or certify that your source is a lawful one — that determination, and clause 1.8's requirement that you actually have lawfully sourced vaccine, remains entirely yours.

What this does NOT change

This new permission sits on top of your existing obligations — it doesn't replace any of them:

• Moving animals between properties still follows the same permit and movement rules as before.
• Suspected FMD — any signs of the disease — must still be reported immediately, exactly as you always have.
• Your local movement restrictions, if your area has any, still apply regardless of vaccination status.

Questions farmers ask

Print this before you start

The one thing to remember: tell them before, prove it after, and keep everything else you already do — movement permits, disease reporting — exactly the same.