Movement paperwork after FMD: what serious buyers now demand

By the end of March 2026, foot-and-mouth disease had open outbreaks in every one of South Africa's nine provinces. Auctions were cancelled, exports fell, and the government classified it a national disaster. The rules for moving an animal from one farm to another changed, and a buyer who does not check the papers now risks bringing the disease home. Here is what changed, and what to ask for.

What happened, in short

The outbreak that reached the whole country began in KwaZulu-Natal in May 2021. For four years it stayed mostly there. Then, in April 2025, it turned up in Mpumalanga and Gauteng. The Department of Agriculture traced those cases to an auction in Utrecht, KwaZulu-Natal: animals from that sale carried the virus to farms in two provinces, and some of them showed no signs at all. North West followed in June 2025, the Free State in July. A separate strain appeared in a Gauteng feedlot in October 2025 and reached the Western Cape in November. In February 2026 the Northern Cape had its first outbreak ever, in a feedlot near Kuruman.

On 13 February 2026 the disease was classified a national disaster. Vaccine had been the bottleneck: by December 2025 only about 950 000 animals had been vaccinated. South Africa started making its own vaccine again on 6 February 2026, after a gap of twenty years, and imported millions of doses. By June 2026, nearly 4.4 million animals had been vaccinated. Where vaccination was thorough it worked: Gauteng vaccinated over 540 000 animals between February and August 2026 and reported a 96% drop in new outbreaks.

The cost fell hardest on the people with the least. Fresh beef exports were down 56.6% in the first quarter of 2026 compared with a year before, and China had stopped buying in May 2025. In the communal areas, Meat Naturally Africa, which runs auctions in farmers' own villages, had to cancel all 27 auctions it had planned between December 2025 and March 2026. Its farmers earned R1.6 million in those months instead of the R20 million or more they normally would.

The Mpumalanga department said something in August 2026 that every buyer should hear: some of its new infections "were caused by cattle bought from auctions whose status was not verified by farmers".

The rules that apply everywhere, all the time

These are not new, but many people still do not know them. They have been national law since 2022 and were restated by the Minister in 2024 and 2025.

• Every movement of cattle, sheep, goats or pigs needs a health declaration from the owner, confirming the animals are healthy at the time they move. Government calls it a legal requirement.
• Every new animal must be kept apart from your herd for at least 28 days, even if it came with a health declaration. The 2025 Mpumalanga cases were on animals that looked perfectly well.
• An animal with salivation, blisters in the mouth, limping or hoof sores must not be moved at all, and any suspicion of foot-and-mouth must be reported to the state veterinarian the same day.
• An animal you have owned for more than 14 days may not be sold unless it carries your registered brand or tattoo mark and you hand the buyer a document of identification, which the buyer must keep for a year. That is the Animal Identification Act of 2002, in force since 2003.

Moving an animal out of a controlled area without a permit from the state veterinarian is an offence under the Animal Diseases Regulations, and when 116 outbreaks were active in August 2022 the Minister stopped all cattle movement in the whole country for three weeks. The law has teeth, and it has been used.

Inside a quarantine or a disease management area: the red cross permit

Parts of KwaZulu-Natal have been a declared Disease Management Area since 2022, enlarged in March 2025. Individual farms anywhere in the country are placed under quarantine when the disease is found. From either, live animals may leave only with the state veterinarian's written permission and a Veterinary Red Cross Movement Permit. The permit names the destination, the conditions, and the individual identification of every animal, and it travels with the Stock Theft Act removal certificates that carry the owner's registered brand. In KwaZulu-Natal you apply at least five working days ahead. Nobody but the state vet can issue it. No auctioneer, no app, no agent.

The national control measures gazetted on 8 July 2026 (Government Notice 7668) set the current rules. Three of them matter most to a buyer.

1. Vaccinated animals that were never infected and never under quarantine are treated as disease free and may be moved and traded without restriction. But they "must have documented proof of adequate and up to date vaccination". No record, no status.
2. A quarantined farm can send animals to a sale yard only under a red cross permit, and only if the yard has a separate camp where those animals stay for 28 days with no nose-to-nose contact with others. Slaughter from a quarantined farm is allowed from day 16 at a designated abattoir, and from day 42 at any abattoir.
3. The origin and the destination must have the same disease status. That is how Mpumalanga now puts the buying rule. Animals from a farm under quarantine do not go to a clean farm, permit or no permit.

What a serious buyer asks for now

Before money moves, and before a truck is booked, a buyer who has been paying attention wants to see six things.

1. Who the seller is. A real identity, and a registered brand or tattoo mark that matches the mark on the animals. An animal with somebody else's mark, or a cut ear, is a problem, not a bargain.
2. The owner's health declaration for these animals, on the day they move.
3. A veterinary certificate, if the seller has one. The Western Cape's veterinary services advise buyers to insist on one for animals from unknown or out-of-province sources. A certificate less than twelve months old tells you a vet has looked at this herd.
4. The vaccination record, if the animals have been vaccinated: the date, the batch numbers and the ear tags. Under the July 2026 rules it is the record that gives a vaccinated animal its free status.
5. Where the farm stands. Is it in a disease management area? Is it under quarantine? Has the district had outbreaks? If the answer to any of these is yes, the animals move only with the state vet's written permission and a red cross permit, and you need to see both.
6. A place to keep them apart for 28 days on your own farm, with its own water, and the discipline to use it. The buyer signs an undertaking to do exactly this when animals pass through a disease management area, and the wise buyer does it every time.

A seller who has these ready sells faster and for more, because the buyer's biggest fear has been answered before it was asked.

What Live Stock does, and does not do

Live Stock cannot issue a permit. Only the state veterinarian can, and any app or agent that says otherwise is telling you something dangerous. What the market does is make the paperwork visible and honest before anyone commits.

• Every seller is identity-checked by a person, and their registered brand mark is on file before they can list.
• A seller's vet certificate is read by our operations desk and what it says is written onto the listing. A seller with no certificate says so on the record, and every buyer sees which it is before committing money.
• Every completed deal issues a health declaration, a movement record and proof of sale for the animals that actually moved, with the seller's and buyer's verified names. The movement record is the platform's own record of the sale; it is not a veterinary permit, and it says so.
• If the certificate at the meeting contradicts what the listing said, the buyer can walk away and keep their money.

The disease has made a paper trail the difference between a sale and a quarantine. Have yours ready, ask for theirs, and keep new animals apart for 28 days. It is the cheapest insurance in farming.