Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen this week removed Dr Danie Odendaal, widely regarded as the most experienced foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) expert on his ministerial task team, from the panel overseeing South Africa’s outbreak response.

Steenhuisen said that Odendaal had “failed to sign the impartiality and confidentiality declaration required of all members”, adding that this “necessitated the termination of your membership with immediate effect”. Steenhuisen’s decision results in the removal of the task team’s most experienced FMD specialist during an active national outbreak.

Odendaal has long been involved in assisting and managing disease outbreaks and is regarded within the livestock sector as one of the country’s foremost authorities on infectious animal diseases. Industry figures widely viewed him as the key technical adviser the minister needed to rely on to stabilise and resolve the current FMD crisis. A number of vets who spoke to The Common Sense expressed their surprise and shock at Odendaal’s removal, citing his competence and experience of handling such matters.

An insider who spoke to The Common Sense said that Odendaal was the single most important member of the FMD task team and that Steenhuisen’s failure to retain Odendaal on that task team has resulted in a serious setback in the country’s fight against FMD.

Last week Steenhuisen indicated that his decision not to run for a third term as leader of the Democratic Alliance was in part due to his decision to focus on his role as minister of agriculture.

Odendaal’s removal follows public criticism of the government’s vaccine rollout strategy. In a recent interview, Odendaal described the handling of the locally produced FMD vaccine as “a national disgrace”. He noted that the vaccine had been developed years earlier and registered in 2022 but was not scaled up when outbreaks first intensified.

“This vaccine was developed with significant taxpayer funding and input from experts, including international specialists,” he said. “The fact is that they had this registered formulation and never contracted it out to be manufactured while the disease was still at an early stage and could have been stopped with ample effective vaccines.”

Those remarks echoed broader industry concerns previously reported on by The Common Sense, including questions over delays in ramping up the vaccine production, restrictions on private sector participation, and the centralisation of vaccine control within the state.

Earlier coverage by this newspaper examined claims that expanded vaccine access represented a breakthrough, while industry sources argued that the product had been available for years and that the primary constraint lay in manufacturing capacity and deployment strategy rather than regulatory approval.

While Steenhuisen’s office has framed Odendaal’s removal strictly as a procedural requirement tied to the impartiality and confidentiality declaration, the timing comes as export markets, auction lots, and feedlot operators continue to monitor the government’s containment strategy closely.

A widespread FMD outbreak such as the current one in South Africa has significant economic consequences as it can prevent farmers from selling live cows and beef.

This has the potential to affect the price of meat and other food goods.

The outbreak remains ongoing.