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Following the confirmed outbreak of Rift Valley fever (RVF) in the Kakamas area of the Northern Cape during November 2025, various queries have been raised by concerned farmers from that area regarding the handling of their greasy wool with reference to the outbreak. Cape Wools SA, official industry representative organisation of the South African wool industry, has the following management advice:
- RVF is listed as a notifiable animal disease in terms of the Animal Diseases Act, 1984 (Act 35 of 1984).
- This means that the occurrence or suspected occurrence of the disease must be reported by stakeholders (producers, private veterinarians, etc.) to the state veterinary authorities.
- Final confirmation would follow, and the locality of the outbreaks must be reported to the National Department of Agriculture (NDA).
- When the NDA reports outbreaks to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), it positions the outbreak at district level, and this appears in the disease outbreak report on WOAH’s website.
- The identified district is captured into the eVerify system, which is the industry’s digitised compliance, verification and certification system that also draws information from the Cape Wools database.
- The producer numbers that originate from this district are then matched to the identified district.
- RVF is one of the many aspects addressed in the current import permits for exporting South African greasy wool to China and Uruguay.
- This requirement is stated as follows: “To the best of my knowledge and belief, did not come from a farm/district that had reported RVF in the 3 months prior to shearing”.
- Since it is impossible to independently verify the exact shearing dates on every farm, it has been agreed –in consultation with the certifying veterinary authority – that greasy wool from districts with confirmed RVF cases will be ring-fenced at an export-approved brokerage for a period of 92 days following weigh-in.
- eVerify also notifies the buyers of the lots of wool which are affected and provides data on an ongoing basis as to when each lot will become compliant for export.
- In this way, only wool that originates from producers in districts where RVF cases are internationally confirmed will be affected.
- By implementing these measures, the impact of RVF outbreaks on producers is limited as much as possible while protecting our export markets.
– Cape Wools
