DAFFOfficial newsletter of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

July 2018

Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Follow on Twitter @DAFF_ZA

Reducing the negative impact of climate change on food security and adaptation of agriculture to climate change

BRICS representatives who attended the 8th meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture and Agrarian Development.

July 2018 DAFFnews No. 7 2

Departmental

Editor PiweMbiko (012)3196936 piwem@daff.gov.zaSubeditor LeratoMofokeng (012)3197927 leratomof@daff.gov.zaReporters SamuelKgatla (012)3197181 samuelk@daff.gov.za InnocentMhlanga (012)3197827 innocentm@daff.gov.za RonyMoremi (012)3196622 rincertm@daff.gov.za JamelaNkanyane (012)3196903 jamelan@daff.gov.za MerciaSmith (012)3196666 mercias@daff.gov.zaPhotographer JariusMmutle (012)3197366 jarusm@daff.gov.zaInterns WalterMaja (012)3197819 maeselam@daff.gov.za DineoRasekhule (012)3196958 dineor@daff.gov.zaDistribution SheilaFlockton (012)3197141 sheilaf@daff.gov.zaWebsite:www.daff.gov.za

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Fruitful 8th Meeting of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) Ministers of Agriculture and Agrarian Development

DAFF Minister Senzeni Zokwana and Deputy Min-ister Sfizo Buthelezi posing with their counterparts from Brazil during the BRICS summit.

Chinese delegates who represented China at the BRICS summit.

South African delegates led by DAFF Minister Senzeni Zokwana during the BRICS summit in Mpu-malanga.

No. 7 DAFFnews July 2018 3

Departmental

The Department of Agriculture, For-estry and Fisheries (DAFF) in col-laboration with the Mpumalanga Provincial Government hosted a fruitful 8th Meeting of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Afri-ca (BRICS) Ministers of Agriculture and Agrarian Development at Protea Hotel Kruger Gate from 19-22 June.

The purpose of the summit was to promote cooperation among BRICS countries on addressing climate change, climate smart actions and ap-proaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation), improving ef-ficiencies, enhancing resilience of ag-ricultural and food production systems (adaptation) and ensuring food secu-rity.

The seminar was held under the theme “Reducing the negative impact of climate change on food security and adaptation of agriculture to climate change”, and also formed part of the build-up to the Presidential BRICS Summit to be held in Johannesburg during the month of July.

BRICS ministers and deputy minis-ters won’t be in a hurry to forget the treatment they received from the South African Government. DAFF, the Mpu-malanga Office of the Premier and the Department of Agriculture, Rural De-velopment, Land and Environmental Affairs went the extra mile by making sure that things went according to the plan.

During the official opening, the MEC for DARDLEA Vusi Shongwe said Mpumalanga was committed to fight-ing climate change and water scarcity.

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Honourable Senzeni Zok-wana added that as BRICS Agriculture Ministers they were racing against time in making a meaningful impact against hunger, food security and climate change phenomena. He continued that they must not rest on their laurels

By Samuel Kgatla

DAFF hosts fruitful 8th BRICS Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Development

and be complacent about the mammoth tasks which lay ahead.

“As BRICS, we are an emerging block that car-ries with it the aspirations of more than 40% of the world population. Within this population lies the challenges of poverty, food insecurity and the effects brought about by climate change as it affects pro-duction levels. We must embrace the technological take-over that is replacing old agricultural methods of doing agricultural busi-ness. The impact of cli-mate change is felt on both food security and livelihood perspectives, particularly by poor smallholder and emerging farmers, as they are especially vulnerable; they have little means or no resources to cope with the increasing climate variability and frequencies of extreme weather events,” he said.

His counterparts from the BRICS

Minister Senzeni Zokwana accepts a gift from Russian counterpart at the BRICS summit.

countries thanked South Africa for hosting a successful meeting. They appreciated the hospitality shown to them during the summit.

DAFF DG Mr Mike Mlengana and Ms Jemina Moeng having a conversation with exhibi-tors during the BRICS summit.

July 2018 DAFFnews No. 7 4

Departmental

Lillydale Home Based Care Centre is one unique project which is help-ing to fight hunger in the country. Lillydale deals with organic food and Vaseline oil produced from si-sal. This was witnessed by dele-gates from the five BRICS countries during a site visit to the project. The delegates were in South Africa to attend the BRICS Summit for Agri-culture Ministers which was held in Mpumalanga.

The project currently operates on 4ha planted with vegetables such as onions, lettuce, cabbages, green pep-per, chillies, sweet potatoes, spinach, morogo, cabbages and beetroot. The project uses hoes to till the land to protect the soil from erosion. Watering cans are used to water the plants.

The intention of the project is to improve the quality of life of the poor around the Lillydale area through the provision of fresh vegetables, indige-nous and fruit trees. The project is able to produce quality and fresh produce that attracts local people in the com-munity. Furthermore, it supplies funer-als, crèches and hawkers who mostly

sell at pension pay points and local markets.

As for the Vaseline oil, the project is using sisal plants that are not managed by anyone and remain a threat to un-derground water. Cutting those plants helps to save water. It is a means of managing underground water. They produce 100 big and 100 small Vase-line tubs per month, and are planning to explore the market for the produc-tion of Vaseline oil. Spar, Shoprite, Pick ‘n Pay, Boxer have been identified as possible targets for their Vaseline.

Mayina Ndlovu, who is the project manager, said that their project ca-

tered for orphans, vulnerable kids and HIV and TB patients. She also said that the project started with 14 women without support from anyone, but is now enjoying support from the depart-ments of Health, and Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmen-tal Affairs.

“DARDLEA is assisting us and their advisors are honest with everything. Our centre is doing a lot as we also produce mats and beadwork. We are selling all our products to the commu-nity,” she said.

The BRICS summit delegation also visited ARC projects in Nelspruit.

By Samuel Kgatla

Vegetables and Vaseline help community to fight hunger

Kedibone Chueu of DAFF pose with workers of Lillydale Project in Mpumalan-ga during the BRICS Summit site visit.

BRICS delegates at Lillydale Project.

No. 7 DAFFnews July 2018 5

Departmental

This year the theme for AVI Africa Congress was “Overcoming the unexpected”, in line with the chal-lenges that were faced by the poul-try in 2017. The congress was held at Emperors Palace on 14 to 16 June 2018.

Key topics discussed at the confer-ence were the Avian Influenza (AI) as well as listeriosis as some of the chal-lenges that almost brought the industry to its knees. There were also three par-allel sessions focussing on economics, production and technical themes, and a session dedicated to small scale farm-ers. The congress had, as usual the biggest exhibition hall with latest tech-nology and equipment on display.

Given the challenges the industry faced in the past year, Dr Mpho Maja from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) pre-sented on the role of government in the poultry industry. She said contrary to popular belief that government’s role is to cull infected animals and compen-sate handsomely, the legal mandate of DAFF was defined by the Animal Dis-eases Act 35 which gives government the mandate to provide for the control of animal diseases and promote animal health. She said Section 11 of the Act places the duty of controlling animal diseases to the farm owner, manager of the farm or owner of the animal.

She informed the delegates that the department was guided by interna-tional guidelines of the OIE (World Or-ganisation for Animal Health) that sets guidelines and standards for disease control as well as trade. In terms of the OIE, the responsibility of the veterinary services is to conduct surveillances, to control diseases, to regulate imports of animals and animal products, report diseases in the country and animal identification among others. She em-phasised that the role of government is to set norms and standards, disease

control, surveillance and provide re-sources such as laboratory services. In recognition of her work and contribu-tion to the poultry industry, Dr Maja was presented with a certificate of merit in recognition by the SAPA Board.

Presenting on the topic about Avian Influenza, Dr Celia Albonik said Avian Influenza is a panzootic disease (an epidemic at a global level) which is associated with live or dead poultry. She added that poultry farming prac-tices caused the emergence of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) that eventually spread to wild hosts such as wild birds. She emphasised the impor-tance of biosecurity which she said is key in preventing further outbreaks.

Dr Ian Brown presented on the topic about limitations in the use of vaccines, he reported that AI may replicate and infect vaccinated birds without any clinical signs. Adding that vaccination is a supplementary tool for the control of the disease but there are challenges associated with the use of vaccines be-

cause once one starts vaccinated they have to keep vaccinating as the strains of the AI change which ultimately makes biosecurity the best prevention tool.

The AI virus can be present in the birds but go unnoticed for up to 21 days, warned Dr Fambies van Biljon. He emphasised that for effective bi-osecurity measures it was important to know where the virus comes from. He said the AI virus can be found in wild birds’ feathers and faeces and the vi-rus can live for ten days in a dead bird, seven days in faeces and 21 days in eggs. Making sure that the chicken house must be 100% wild bird proof is the most important biosecurity meas-ure that poultry producers must use. Biosecurity is a shared responsibility”, said Dr Ziyanda Majokweni from South African Poultry Association (SAPA). She said it is the responsibility of poul-try producers, SAPA and government to protect the national flock from dis-eases such as the AI.

Theme of AVI Africa Congress was “Overcoming the unexpected”

By Rony Moremi

The congress had, as usual the biggest exhibition hall with latest tech-nology and equipment on display. Here farmers are getting the newest information on poultry farming.

July 2018 DAFFnews No. 7 6

Departmental

The Department of Agriculture, For-estry and Fisheries tabled its Budg-et Vote 24, which highlighted the department’s plans for the 2018/19 financial year. In his opening, Min-ister Senzeni Zokwana lamented the economic state in which the country found itself in during 2017. “Honourable members, last year when I presented the budget vote, the country’s economic growth out-look was bleak following the credit downgrade by two ratings agencies. Despite the fact that our sector’s al-located budget was only 1% lower than the current year, it is worth noting that the sector has managed to achieve positive growth—pulling South Africa out of a technical re-cession.”

Youth empowerment One role of the department is to grow

the sector through various interven-tions such as attracting a new genera-tion of farmers; targeting the youth into the sector by taking advantage of tech-nology that is beginning to dominate the sector such as robotics and drones which are now part of what is popularly known as ‘smart agriculture’. Minster Zokwana called for an inclusion of these technologies in the academic curricula. “We must incorporate these new technologies into the curricula of our agricultural colleges of the future.”

He continued that, “We must make our young people realise that this sec-tor is business, not just subsistence. It is the sector which needs highly skilled

researchers, accountants, economists, engineers and IT specialists.”

On the other hand, the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors are char-acterised by ageing farmers and a high rate of unemployed graduates. In an effort to bridge this gap, the de-partment developed the Agricultural Graduate Placement Programme and implemented it in June this year. This initiative which aims to provide on-the-job training to unemployed agricultural graduates, will benefit 1 000 young people. A total of 120 graduates have been placed per province in the East-ern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and the Western Cape while Gauteng and the Northern Cape were assigned 80 graduates each.

Public private partnerships The Minister announced a develop-

ment fund which will be sponsored by private sector companies, which will benefit small scale fishers. “I would like to announce that Sea Harvest, Brimstone and Masisizane Fund of Old Mutual have committed to the es-tablishment of a R100 million fisheries development fund which will be formal-ly launched soon. It will provide fund-ing to enable beneficiaries to operate once they are allocated fishing rights. The fund will also assist government to empower new entrants in the fish-ing industry, revitalising the ocean’s economy.

Further opportunities and livelihood alternatives for fishing communities

will be created through the continued implementation of the Expanded Pub-lic Works Programme in coastal and rural communities under the Working for Fisheries Programme. The depart-ment aims to create 1 085 full time jobs under this programme. The de-partment has formed partnerships with several coastal municipalities and in-vestors to rehabilitate abandoned fish processing plants in order to process fish for major retailers such as Wool-worths and Wise Foods in the United Kingdom. The beneficiaries of these will be the rights holders of the com-munity co-operatives who will eventu-ally own the facilities. This is part of the implementation of the Small Scale Fisheries Policy.

In response to the call for the com-mercialisation of 450 black producers, work is in progress to ensure that this becomes a reality. In the 2018 National Budget Speech, Minister of Finance indicated that an estimated amount of R581.7 million will be reprioritised for the Black Producer Commercialisation Programme.

The department has collaborated with the Agbiz, Land Bank and Bank-ing Association of South Africa, which is made up of Nedbank, Absa, Stand-ard Bank and FNB to provide blended funding and increase the participation of black commercial producers in the sectors. This programme started in April this year and its aim is to reduce reliance on grants and increase the af-fordability of loans to black producers.

By Jamela Nkanyane

Agricultural sector has managed to achieve positive growth

No. 7 DAFFnews July 2018 7

Departmental

Speaking at a post media briefing, Deputy Minister Sfiso Buthelezi said “It is very important that the sector should be transformed; the sector can’t con-tinue with black people being on the margins of the sector; with women be-ing on the periphery of the sector; with young people being just bystanders in the sector. We are therefore saying, from where we are as government, we will assist all the initiatives which try to ensure that everybody plays his part.”

Projects to be supported in 2018/19 financial year

Wool and mohair producers in the Eastern Cape will benefit from 14 multi-purpose sheds that will be con-structed in Chris Hani, Joe Gqabi and O.R. Tambo districts. This project, which also includes a small stock dip-ping facility, aims to improve the qual-ity of wool and the net income of the farmers.

In the Free State, the Ilima/Letsema Programme will support 46 projects for the production of over 2 000 hectares of land benefiting 16 subsistence and 55 smallholder producers. The projects have potential to create 461 jobs. The programme has been allocated R43 million for this purpose and will be dis-tributed between the four districts and metro.

Gauteng, being one of the major maize production regions in the coun-try will support projects in Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark and Bronkhorstspruit targeting 2 600 hectares to benefit 55

smallholder producers. The province will also support broilers and layer smallholder producers to increase ca-pacity up to 40 000. An amount of R34 million from the Comprehensive Agri-cultural Support Programme and Ilima/Letsema will assist to provide poultry structures and production inputs.

KwaZulu-Natal plans to create over 1 000 jobs through an allocation of R37 million for vegetable production includ-ing the construction of pack houses, fencing, irrigation systems, boreholes, dam scooping, implements and pro-duction inputs.

In Limpopo five projects will be im-plemented and provided with an irriga-tion system covering 100 hectares in an effort to develop and commercial-ise black potato producers. Potatoes will be supplied locally to McCain and some exported to Mozambique, creat-ing about 1 600 seasonal jobs.

Mpumalanga is allocated R45 mil-lion for the Phezukomkhono Mlimi Pro-gramme where over 2 000 households will receive seeds fertilisers, agro-chemicals and mechanisation support. This programme targets production for 3 000 hectares of maize sugar beans, various types of beans and ground-nuts.

The Northern Cape in partnership with the National Agricultural Market-ing Council will develop 95 of the 500 hectares of vineyard targeted for the production of raisins wine and table grapes. About R30 million will be used

Young people must realise this sec-tor is business not just subsistence

to establish vineyards infrastructure and inputs.

Rural communities in the North West were assigned eleven newly qualified veterinary scientists for the one-year Compulsory Community Service. This deployment is meant to strengthen veterinary services and to ensure that threats to animal health and food safe-ty are detected as early as possible.

South Africa is a net importer of wheat, currently importing around 50% of its requirements. This alone presents an opportunity to support smallholder producers to enter the wheat market. As a result, the department has col-laborated with the grain industry in ef-fort to develop sustainable smallholder wheat producers in the Western Cape.

Deputy Minister Buthelezi also con-tinued to say that one of the issues raised by emerging farmers was the question of access to the markets. “We are saying to the NAMC that it’s very important that it comes up with pro-grammes which are going to ensure that producers access the market.”

He emphasised government’s call for the industry and those who buy ag-ricultural produce to include emerging farmers in their procurement. He also called on government and government institutions, and the private sector to support emerging farmers. He said there is no use in producing and not accessing the market. “This is not for the interest of the farmers but for the interest of the bigger economy.”

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July 2018 DAFFnews No. 7 8

Sector

A tiny polyphagous beetle is pos-ing a threat to South African trees, with more than 50 species in the Johannesburg area alone; already affected. It was discovered in the country for the first time in South Africa in KwaZulu-Natal, Pieterma-ritzburg Botanical Gardens in 2017 by Dr Trudy Paap, a postdoctoral fellow at the Forestry and Agricul-ture Biotechnology Institute (FABI) at the University of Pretoria.

Euwallacea fornicatus,commonly known as PSHB, originated from Southeast Asia. It is a major pest of concern for many important ornamen-tal and crop tree species that are na-tive to South Africa.

At a seminar hosted by the Univer-sity of Pretoria FABI, Wilhelm de Beer, associate professor, said control ac-

tions of the beetle are limited with the only option being to cut down the host tree. He said that research on the bee-tle shows that the beetle is associated with several fungal species when it in-fects living trees.

The fungus symbiont Fusarium eu-walliaceae penetrates the wood and blocks up the vascular vessels of the wood causing die back of branches and eventually the tree because no water reaches the branches as a re-sult of the fungus. In some cases the tree can die quickly but sometimes it can take several years before the fun-gus can kill the tree, he added. Simi-lar beetles and their fungal symbionts killed millions of Elm trees in Europe (Duch Elm Disease) in the 1920s and 30s and 350 million trees in America. In British Columbia alone, more than

20 million hectares of pine trees have been killed already by the ongoing epi-demic.

In January 2018 the beetle was spot-ted on a backyard avocado tree in Sandton. “The presence of the beetle on the avocado trees causes a major concern based on the fact that SA has 17000 hectares of avocado orchards, with 80% exported, which makes it a very important economic crop in SA”, said Prof Nonalie van den Berg from FABI. In response to managing the spread of the beetle, avocado growers association of South Africa have been alerted and presentations have been done to farmers so they can keep a close eye on the avocado orchards, said Nolanie. She added that there is a new project initiated at FABI to focus on the beetle on avocado trees.

By Rony Moremi

The polyphagous shothole borer (PSHB) poses a threat to South African trees

A tree that has been attacked by the polyphagous shot hole borer. The beetle burrows into the tree, leaving holes.

Oozing sap and dark patches around polyphagous shot hole borer holes are seen on the bark of some host trees.

No. 7 DAFFnews July 2018 9

Dr Trudy Paap said that the beetle they found in Pietermaritzburg gardens is the same genotype that invaded California and Israel and was problem-atic on ornamental street trees as well as avocado trees. “A lot of the pests are not problematic in the areas they are native to but are problematic in the new environment”, she said. In 2016 SANBI initiated the sentinel research project in response to the challenge of pests. A sentinel plant is a plant that is outside its natural range which can be used to look for insects or microor-ganisms that might not be damaging in their natural environment but could potentially jump to exotic trees.

Other tree species affected in the Sandton area include non-native or-namental trees such as Japanese and Chinese maple, London plane, kapok, and liquid amber. Several paper bark trees native to South Africa were also heavily infested and dying. Nolanie reported that the beetle is capable of flying 20 km per year and the female can fly up to 1 km a day. In South Af-rica there’s one and a half million hec-tares of trees altogether, commercial plantations and natural forestry.

Which trees are the host trees?

A wide variety of ornamental trees, many of which are grown in urban ar-eas such as Johannesburg are known hosts of this pest. Other host trees in-clude woody plants such as avocado, citrus, castor, and chinese maple.

What to look for to identify damage associated with this beetle

Symptoms of attack by the beetle may vary across different tree species and may be confused with symptoms of other stem borers. Precise micro-scopic and DNA tests may be required to positively identify the pest. Some symptoms to look out for are:

Sector

• Regular death of trees in a similar pattern

• Patches of white powdered wood called frass surrounding the bee-tle’s entrance holes

• Blotches of oozing resin also sur-rounding the beetle’s entrance holes

• Small, elevated lesions on the bark resembling shotgun wounds

What to do if you spot or sus-pect the occurrence of the pest in your area

Chemical control done by injecting a chemical in the tree is very expensive and the application has to be repeated. Chemical lures and traps are also very expensive. The best way to manage the spread would be to:• Not to move plant material from

areas known to be infested to any

Research on the beetle shows that the beetle is associated with several fun-gal species when it infects living trees

other area without proper docu-mentation

• Regular monitoring of trees for any suspected symptoms of the pest

• Plant resistant trees• Cut down infested trees and burn

them • Report any suspected symptoms

associated with the beetle to the office of the executive officer of the Department of Agriculture, For-estry and Fisheries or the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology In-stitute of the University of Pretoria

An appeal is made to all gardeners to watch out for the beetles, photographs of the symptoms, GPS coordinates or a street address, the host tree spe-cies and the reporter’s contact details can be sent to diagnostic.clinic@fabi.up.ac.za.

July 2018 DAFFnews No. 7 10

Departmental

The long-awaited amendment to the statutory measure for the reporting of maize imports and exports, which Grain SA applied for, has been pub-lished in the Government Gazette on 18 May 2018 by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisher-ies. Maize importers and exports reported physical imports and ex-ports which occurred, to the South African Grain Information Service (SAGIS).

This amendment now mandates ad-ditional reporting on planned maize imports and/or exports or on maize contracts already prepared for trans-actions to occur.

The parties concerned will be re-quired to submit weekly returns to SAGIS, stating the necessary informa-tion regarding the import or export of maize, which will declare these figures on a weekly basis. Imports and/or ex-ports must be reported to SAGIS eight

weeks prior to the physical receipt (im-ports)/shipping (exports) thereof.

The importers and exporters must also indicate in the weekly returns if there are any contracts for import or export purposes that have been washed out and will therefore no long-er take place. However, this weekly reporting will still indicate the balance of contracts, prepared for import or ex-port purposes.

Maize supply and demand are among the most important factors af-fecting local maize prices as well as maize futures price. However, the free market system can only function opti-mally if all market players have access to the same information, especially re-garding aspects affecting supply and demand. The amendment of the statu-tory measure that obliges importers and exporters of maize to report the necessary information on import- and export contracts will release this infor-

Timeous import and export information will lead to more transparency in the maize market

mation to the market, giving all market role players the opportunity to make the necessary informed and timeous marketing decisions.

Grain SA believes that this informa-tion will be of great value to producers as they will have timeous access to the same information as the rest of the market, and will prove valuable in their decision-making and marketing of their maize. This is contrary to the current system where information first enters the market when the physical grain has already been in- or exported. SAGIS is currently in the process of developing a new system to accommodate this information and to publish it as accu-rately as possible.

The wheat industry has already approved a similar request which has been directed to the Minis-ter, and of which the market will be notified when it is approved.

No. 7 DAFFnews July 2018 11

Departmental

The trade has reported a steady increase in demand for fresh pork. We trust that our promotion and other communication campaigns will result in producer prices increasing to more “acceptable” levels soon, says Johann Kotzé, CEO of SAPPO.

“Further good news is that the trade also reports an increase in the demand for processed products. Media enquiries about listeriosis and reporting on the subject have clearly slowed down.

“Thank you for your continued cooperation and help where needed during the listeriosis crisis. Pork producers again showed their character by making plans and tackling the challenge head on,” Kotzé said.

Steady increase in demand for fresh pork

Invasive alien plants are introduced into South Africa from elsewhere in the world. Species such as cacti, Australian acacias and mesquite spread into the veld where they re-duce grazing potential. Waterweeds compromise access to water and impact water quality. Invasive alien plants thrive here as they find suit-able environments away from their natural enemies (insects and patho-gens).

The Southern African Plant Invader Atlas in 2016 listed 773 plant species which are growing and spreading out-side of cultivation. The Alien and Inva-sive Species Regulations (2014) listed 379 invasive plant species including many cacti and waterweeds. Many of these listed plant species pose a threat to crop, livestock and game produc-tion. Biological control of invasive alien plants uses specially tested and se-lected insects or fungi (agents) to con-trol the target invasive alien species. In South Africa we often strengthen clas-sical biological control efforts through

augmented control where additional agents are reared and released into new sites or sites where the agent population has decreased. Biological control agents are carefully selected and tested before they are released into South Africa. Researchers travel to the countries from where the inva-sive plant originated in order to identify potential agents which are selected according to international guidelines. The host specificity of agents is tested to agreed protocols in a quarantine fa-cility. The research undertaken is peer reviewed by scientists and then sub-ject to a regulatory review by experts. Prior to an agent being released from quarantine, the science has to prove that it is safe and will not spread from the targeted species. By 2018 of the 270 agents considered, only 120 had been approved for release from quar-antine, this demonstrates the rigor of testing in South Africa. South Africa has a 105 year history of research and safe use of biological control on plants with the first agents released in 1913.

The target for management of some species of invasive plants is com-plete control but some species such as Acacias are utilized and thus the agents introduced will damage only seed production, curbing their spread and not valuable timber. The success of biological control is best illustrated in pictures below. Before After Biologi-cal control released on Australian pest pear Before After Biological control re-leased on red water fern The Centre for Biological Control has agents that target four waterweed and nine cactus species for distribution. We welcome farmers to request biological control agents of cactus invaders. E-mail pho-tographs of problem plants to p.ivey@ru.ac.za in order to assess whether we have the correct agent. In order for us to better assist farmers we invite them to take part in this six question survey. The research undertaken by the Cen-tre for Biological Control into biologi-cal control of invasive alien plants is largely funded by the Department of Environmental Affairs.

Biological control: Saving your money, time, and putting farmers first

July 2018 DAFFnews No. 7 12

Sector

South African apple exporters are expected to immediately restart ship-ments to Taiwan after a suspension on South African apple imports was lifted by the Taiwanese government. Imports were suspended last year when Taiwanese officials found one codling moth larva in a consignment of fruit. A Taiwanese delegation visited South Africa last month to review the country’s mitigation processes, and gave us an all-clear, said Jacques du Preez, Hortgro’s Trade and Markets Manager.

Taiwan Green Light for SA Apples

Seventeen (17) species of Listeria are known and are found widely in nature. Only two of these are as-sociated with disease in animals and only one of them is associated with disease in humans. Listeria monocytogenes (L. mono) is the one, which can be associated with disease in animals and humans, says Dr Peter Evans, SAPPO’s head of Consumer Assurance. Listeria monocytogenes can contaminate or infect animals, but usually does not cause disease.

There have been no reported cases of Listeriosis in pigs in South Africa. Not all Listeria monocytogenes sero-types can cause disease in humans. In the current outbreak, serotype ST6 was diagnosed as the causative sero-type. In other parts of the world, food borne disease in humans has been as-sociated with other serotypes.

After the outbreak in humans and the trace back to Enterprise’s Polokwane processing plant, it was decided to in-vestigate whether Listeria and in par-ticular L. mono ST6 is present on the farms. Laboratory culture of samples from pig farms showed that Listeria

could be found on pig farms (indicating that testing was sensitive enough) but no ST6 serotype was found.

It is important to be clear that this was an outbreak investigation and not continual monitoring of Listeria pres-ence on farms.

Samples were taken from: feed troughs, water nipples/bowls, drains/slurry, boots, pig faeces, grower pens, sow pens, pig skin and ramps.

1) 13/15 (87%) of the farms sampled were positive for Listeria (Listeria spp and /or Listeria monocytogens).

2) 9/15 (60%) of the farms were posi-tive for L. mono.

3) The reason for the absence in L. monocytogenes in sow pens, grower pens, skin and ramps could be due to the limitation in the detection of Listeria monocytogenes in food/ environmental samples in the presence of competing Listeria innocua.

4) All Listeria monocytogenes are capable of causing Listeriosis, but it is also known that ST 6 are usually from serotype 4b. This serotype was not found in any of the samples.

5) Serotype 3b and 3c were found (also part of the lineage I group).

These species are known to cause se-vere cases of human Listeriosis.

6) Serotype 1/2c, 3a are known to be environmental Listeria associated with drains and factory environments and can form biofilms.

7) One of the water samples was positive (we believe this was contami-nation, as water from same source tested negative on other swabs).

A questionnaire survey is being planned to try and elucidate factors which may help to allow us to give valuable advice to reduce Listeria in the environment.

For example:• are there differences in farming

practices which may result in boot con-tamination with Listeria?

• Another question to be answered is: how good are on-farm disinfection programs to reduce /eliminate Listeria on pen floors?

• How do we reduce Listeria on load-ing ramps?

Peter Evans SAPPO:Head Consumer AssurancePlease feel free to contact me or

your consultant if you have questions vet@sapork.com

Investigation into listeriosis outbreak