South Africa is building up vaccine stocks and expanding inoculations to fight a worsening foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, the agriculture ministry said, as the country faces threats to beef supplies.

Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious, viral infection of cloven-hoofed animals that may also affect other species. Flare-ups have been reported over the past several months in five of South Africa's nine provinces, with KwaZulu- Natal being the worst affected.

This week, Karan Beef, which operates the country's largest feedlot and one of the world's biggest, reported an outbreak at its facility in Heidelberg, about 50 kilometres southeast of Johannesburg. The quarantine imposed on the feedlot, which slaughters about 2 000 cattle daily, could impact beef supplies.

The government has ordered over 900 000 doses of foot-and-mouth disease vaccines with the first batch expected to arrive next week, the agriculture ministry said in a statement late on Thursday.

"These plans are not only about responding to outbreaks, but also about building permanent infrastructure to manage future risks," it said.

There are growing calls by some cattle producers to declare a "state of disaster" and protect the industry from financial losses. Invoking disaster law gives the government additional powers to intervene in a crisis.

The foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks have resulted in South African beef and related products being banned in markets such as China, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

South Africa's livestock sector is also recovering from its worst avian flu outbreak, which destroyed a third of the national chicken flock in 2023.

On Thursday, the government announced the first ever mass vaccination of poultry to prevent a repeat outbreak of high-pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), a bird flu that spreads rapidly in an infected flock, causing a high death rate.