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The Importance of Animal Research for Food Security

Animal genetics research plays a vital role in the food security offered by farming suppliers. Onderstepoort Biological Products has been protecting food security since 1908, after the animal disease epidemic in 1896 that wiped out 95% of South Africa’s livestock.

Animal Diseases That Plague The Food Industry

Food safety and food security are reliant on research that determines how to treat animals who carry disease or the use of animal genetics to breed out their susceptibility to these diseases. This is in an effort to protect both wildlife and livestock from common diseases.

Zoonoses are diseases which can spread from animal to man in a number of ways, with contamination through food and water being the most immediate threat. Zoonoses will be transmittable through the animals’ meat and milk, so livestock is particularly susceptible to spreading these illnesses.

Some animals act as “carriers” while not presenting any signs or symptoms of the disease but still possessing the ability to infect other animals and people. Some of these pathogens live in the intestinal tract of animals, which means any intestinal content remaining after the slaughter of an animal will infect the entire carcass. Zoonoses can spread to human beings through contact with their faecal matter, often through fruit and vegetables that have been rinsed with infected water.

Onderstepoort Biological Products: Protecting Farming Suppliers and Consumers

Onderstepoort Biological Products knows better than anyone what can happen if vets in South Africa do not investigate animal genetics and animal nutrition in order to prevent the outbreak of disease. They were born from the necessity for veterinarians and their research after a disease known as Rinderpest wiped out almost all of South Africa’s livestock and wildlife in the late 1800s. The name “Onderstepoort” was to become a major role player in the research, development and manufacture of vaccines to combat the many animal diseases which plague Africa.

Health control measures implemented by both farming suppliers and veterinarians (like the research done at Onderstepoort Biological Products) are all in an effort to prevent the spread of disease among animals and to human beings. This research institute functions under the Agricultural Research Council to protect both the farming suppliers who provide agricultural products and the consumers that are reliant on them.

For more information of how farming in South Africa is protected from all angles visit our agricultural directory or contact us for more information.

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Farming Suppliers | animal genetics | agricultural products