What this guide covers: the recovery timeline that starts the moment a property is placed under FMD quarantine — Day 0, Day 16, Day 42, and the full 16-month cycle to a final state-veterinarian inspection — and what it actually unlocks at each point.
What it doesn't cover: the separate rules for privately buying and administering FMD vaccine yourself, which have their own 5-day/14-day process — see the FMD Private Vaccination guide. Movement permits and disease reporting outside a quarantine follow the same rules as always and are unchanged by this pathway.
1. IntroductionWhy this exists
A quarantine is the strongest regulatory instrument in South Africa's livestock biosecurity system. When Foot-and-Mouth Disease is suspected or confirmed on a property, the Authority declares a quarantine and typically enforces a 10-kilometre control zone around it, prohibiting movement of cloven-hoofed animals — cattle, sheep, goats and pigs — until the property clears a series of milestones.
The current DALRRD framework deliberately moves away from automatic whole-herd culling. Instead, it gives producers a staged path back to normal trading, measured in days and months from the point the quarantine is declared, with two intermediate trade re-openings (Day 16 and Day 42) before the quarantine can be formally lifted.
2. OverviewThe pathway at a glance
| Checkpoint | What opens up | Who signs off |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0 | Quarantine declared. All cloven-hoofed movement blocked, 10km control zone enforced. | State Veterinarian / Authority |
| Day 16 | Movement to designated FMD abattoirs, under a RED CROSS permit. | State Veterinarian (clinical clearance) |
| Day 42 | Export-approved slaughter eligibility, subject to full documentation. | State Veterinarian / export certification chain |
| 16 months | Final on-site inspection; quarantine may be formally lifted. | State Veterinarian |
Day 0 — Quarantine declared
The clock starts the moment the Authority declares the quarantine. From that point:
- A 10km control zone is enforced around the affected holding.
- All vehicles entering or leaving must be disinfected.
- No cloven-hoofed animal may move without a state-veterinarian permit.
- The zone is assigned a restriction level — advisory, restricted, or blocked — see Part 7 for what each one actually means for you.
The quarantine can be attached to a single animal, a group/mob, or an entire holding, depending on how far the risk has been assessed to extend.
4. Day 16Day 16 — Abattoir movement resumes
If the property has been declared clinically clear by the state vet, commercial movement to designated FMD abattoirs may resume 16 days after that clearance. Two conditions apply:
- A valid RED CROSS permit is required for the movement.
- Only abattoirs on the DALRRD-designated FMD abattoir list may receive these animals — not any abattoir.
Day 42 — Export-eligible slaughter
42 days after clinical clearance, animals become eligible for export-approved slaughter facilities, opening wider trade options beyond the local abattoir list. This tier has a heavier evidence bar:
- Full vaccination records where applicable.
- Cold-chain documentation for any vaccine administered.
- A complete movement audit trail.
This aligns with WOAH (World Organisation for Animal Health) Terrestrial Code export-certification expectations — the same standard referenced throughout Agribantu's own traceability model (see the RMIS Traceability Alignment and ICAR/ADE documentation).
6. 16 months16 months — Final inspection and lifting the quarantine
A quarantine can legally run for up to 16 months from declaration. Before it can be formally lifted, a state veterinarian must physically inspect the property. Only after that inspection does the holding return to full, unrestricted trading status — Day 16 and Day 42 open specific trade channels, but they do not end the quarantine itself.
Restriction levels and destination isolation
Every biosecurity zone carries one of three restriction levels, and they carry real operational consequences:
| Level | What it means |
|---|---|
| Advisory | Heightened monitoring. Voluntary movement caution advised. No permit required. |
| Restricted | Permit required for all cloven-hoofed animal movement. 28-day destination isolation mandatory on arrival. |
| Blocked | All movement prohibited. 10km control zone fully enforced. Vehicle decontamination compulsory. |
The 28-day destination isolation rule applies separately from the Day 0/16/42/16-month pathway: any newly arrived cloven-hoofed animals at any holding — including the destination of an approved restricted-zone movement — must be kept apart from resident stock for a minimum of 28 days, with a second clear inspection required before mixing. The receiving holding is itself placed under advisory status for that period.
8. Recovery, not depopulationNo mandatory culling — your recovery options
Automatic whole-herd culling is prohibited under the current framework. If your herd is affected, you retain options:
- Remove and dispose of only the infected animals.
- Restock with vaccinated animals once the zone permits it.
- Introduce animals sourced from FMD-free zones.
Vaccinated animals that have never been infected and are not themselves under quarantine are legally recognised as healthy livestock — they may be traded under normal commercial requirements, without extra restrictions beyond the standard permit rules.
9. Special casesWell-fenced properties and communal systems
Well-fenced properties may be able to manage an outbreak within only the affected section of land, rather than the whole farm — full-property quarantine isn't automatic if you can demonstrate adequate biosecurity separation to the state vet.
Communal and peri-urban systems, where shared grazing and multiple ownership are the norm, are handled under a tailored approach rather than the standard isolation protocol — the state veterinarian adapts the framework to the communal context on a case-by-case basis.
10. Agribantu today — for owners For farm owners & managersWhat Agribantu already does — and what's still coming
| What | Status |
|---|---|
| The legal framework on this page | Accurate today — plan around it directly |
| Recording a quarantine against an animal, group, or your whole holding | Live — under LITS → Biosecurity, the Quarantine tab. You (or your team) can start a quarantine record with a reason, the authority involved, and link it to a biosecurity zone |
| Seeing which of your quarantines are active, and since when | Live — the same tab shows every quarantine record, active or lifted, with the reason and start date |
| Ending a quarantine once it's resolved | Live — recorded with an end reason and outcome; the affected animal's status is automatically restored |
| Seeing your own Day 16 / Day 42 / 16-month countdown as a farmer | Not yet built for the owner side — today that milestone dashboard only exists on the Authority side (Part 11). Talk to your state vet for your property's actual status against these dates |
| Biosecurity zones, disease suspicion reports and movement restrictions tied to a quarantine | Live — under the same LITS → Biosecurity page's other tabs |
Recording and ending a quarantine is ready to use today. Open LITS → Biosecurity and use the Quarantine tab. What Agribantu does not yet give you, as the owner, is an automatic Day 16/42/16-month milestone view of your own quarantine — that calculation currently lives only on the Authority side of the platform. Until an owner-facing version exists, treat the dates your state vet gives you directly as authoritative.
11. Agribantu today — for regulators For state vets & Authority usersWhat Agribantu already does — and one honest gap
| What | Status |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction-wide view of every active and lifted quarantine | Live — the FMD Quarantine Command Centre (Authority → Quarantine) lists every quarantine in your jurisdiction, filterable by province, district, restriction level and status |
| Automatic Day 16 / Day 42 / 16-month milestone tracking | Live — each quarantine card shows a timeline bar, milestone markers, and a computed stage ("Under Active Quarantine", "Day 16 Reached", "Day 42 Reached", "Inspection Due") |
| Aggregate FMD reporting | Live — active quarantine counts, disease reports, FMD vaccination counts, pending movements and blocked-restriction counts, exportable from Authority → Reports |
| The regulatory directives this page is based on, as a browsable reference | Live — Authority → Policies lists the named directives (e.g. DIR-ZA-FMD-004, DIR-ZA-FMD-005) with their legal citations |
| Movement restriction and biosecurity zone administration | Live — zones, restriction levels and quarantine linkage are all managed from the same Authority surfaces |
| A separate, recorded "clinically clear" declaration date, distinct from the quarantine start date | Not yet built. Today's Day 16/42/16-month milestones are calculated from the quarantine's start date, as a working approximation. The framework itself measures Day 16 and Day 42 from clinical clearance, which can fall after Day 0 if clinical signs persist. Until a dedicated clearance-date field exists, treat Agribantu's computed milestone stage as an approximation and confirm the true clinical-clearance date with the attending state vet for any decision with legal or trade consequences |
Questions people ask
Does reaching Day 16 end the quarantine?
No. It only opens movement to designated FMD abattoirs under a RED CROSS permit. The quarantine itself stays in force until the final inspection, potentially up to 16 months later.
Do Day 16 and Day 42 count from the day the quarantine was declared, or from clinical clearance?
From clinical clearance, per the framework. If your property took time to clear clinical signs after Day 0, your real Day 16/42 dates fall later than 16/42 days after declaration. Confirm the exact clearance date with your state vet — see Part 11 for how Agribantu currently approximates this.
Will my animals be culled?
Not automatically. The current framework prohibits mandatory whole-herd culling and gives you the option to remove only infected animals, restock with vaccinated stock, or source animals from FMD-free zones once permitted.
Can I move animals to any abattoir once I reach Day 16?
No — only to abattoirs on the DALRRD-designated FMD abattoir list, and only under a valid RED CROSS permit.
Does vaccination end the quarantine early?
Not by itself. Vaccinated, never-infected animals not under quarantine are recognised as healthy and trade normally, but a property already under quarantine still follows the Day 0/16/42/ 16-month pathway and the final state-vet inspection to be lifted.
What if my property is well-fenced — does the whole farm have to be quarantined?
Not necessarily. If you can demonstrate adequate biosecurity separation to the state vet, the quarantine may be confined to the affected section of land rather than the entire property.
Print this before you start
| Day | Unlocks | Still required |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0 | Nothing yet — quarantine begins, 10km control zone enforced | State-vet permit for any cloven-hoofed movement |
| Day 16 (from clinical clearance) | Movement to designated FMD abattoirs | RED CROSS permit · abattoir on the DALRRD-designated list |
| Day 42 (from clinical clearance) | Export-approved slaughter eligibility | Full vaccination, cold-chain and movement audit documentation |
| 16 months | Quarantine may be formally lifted | On-site state-veterinarian final inspection |
The one thing to remember: Day 16 and Day 42 open specific trade channels — they don't end the quarantine. Only a state-veterinarian inspection, up to 16 months later, does that.