South African National Parks has confirmed that foot-and-mouth disease has been found in kudu at Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape, according to SABC News.
The confirmation followed a second round of diagnostic tests on samples taken from affected animals in the park, SANParks said. The testing was carried out together with the Department of Agriculture's Eastern Cape office.
SANParks said its wildlife health surveillance programme first picked up a rise in lameness among kudu in the park. The Department of Agriculture was notified, and although the first set of tests came back negative, further investigation and testing confirmed the disease.
Why it matters
The result places the virus in wildlife inside one of South Africa's best-known national parks, at a time when the country is already managing foot-and-mouth disease in other parts of the Eastern Cape.
According to SABC News, the finding has raised concerns about the virus possibly spreading to other wildlife and to livestock farms in the surrounding area.
SANParks has stressed that the positive results should not be read as proof of where the infection came from or how it is moving.
What the park says about the findings
JP Louw, SANParks' head of communications, said the detection needs to be viewed against the wider foot-and-mouth disease picture in the province.
He said the positive results in kudu confirm that the virus is present in animals under SANParks' care, but that on their own they do not establish the source of the infection, the direction of transmission, or any link between Addo Elephant National Park and other outbreaks in the Eastern Cape.
Louw said those questions are being handled by the relevant veterinary authorities.
That distinction matters because foot-and-mouth disease investigations typically look at several possible routes at once — animal movement, contact between domestic and wild animals, and the broader regional spread of the virus. A positive test tells investigators the virus is there; it does not by itself explain how it arrived.
No other species showing signs
SANParks said that as things stand, no other wildlife species in the park are displaying clinical signs consistent with foot-and-mouth disease.
The department was brought in after the lameness increase was flagged, and the follow-up testing was conducted on samples from the affected kudu.
Foot-and-mouth disease affects cloven-hoofed animals, a group that includes cattle, sheep, goats and several wild species such as kudu. It is not a human health threat, but it carries serious consequences for livestock farming and for trade in animal products, which is why detections in wildlife attract close attention from agricultural authorities.
What to watch
Investigations by veterinary authorities into the source of the infection and any possible links to other outbreaks in the province are continuing, and the next set of updates is likely to come from SANParks and the Department of Agriculture as that work progresses.
