Cape Times

Avian flu outbreak contained, department says

FARMING associatio­ns have welcomed the announceme­nt by the Department of Agricultur­e, Land Reform and Rural Developmen­t that the avian flu outbreak has been contained.

This comes after the outbreak of the flu severely impacted the industry last year, resulting in the culling or death of over 100 000 chickens.

The department added that the avian flu vaccine has been registered but it will not be rolled out unless there is another outbreak of the flu.

South African Poultry Associatio­n CEO Izaak Breitenbac­h said the last cases were in November last year.

“This is certainly good news for farmers, but now we need to vaccinate our flocks to prevent a disaster like 2023 from happening again. Farmers need to apply to vaccinate, and to qualify to vaccinate the farmers must adhere to a biosecurit­y protocol and do recommende­d monitoring of flocks.”

Breitenbac­h added that he had concerns about vaccinatio­n. “Because of the high level of biosecurit­y required to vaccinate and the high cost of monitoring, we are concerned that a lot of farmers will not qualify to vaccinate.

“Although there is no shortage of poultry meat at present, it’s beneficial long term for the consumer that we produce all chicken locally. We have supplied cheap chicken to the consumers for many years and would like to continue to do so.”

Bennie van Zyl, TLU SA general manager, said farmers had suffered great losses as they had to cull chickens to prevent the flu from spreading.

There were also job losses.

Van Zyl said a stable environmen­t would allow for better prices for the consumer in the poultry industry.

“The best prices can be achieved by using market principles, the availabili­ty of what they produce such as eggs and broiler chicken and the demand from the consumers. We should expect more demand from the consumer after the end of the outbreak and that will bring a balance to the price.”

Jaco Minnaar, president of Agri SA, said biosecurit­y was becoming a significan­t problem in South Africa.

“The impact is seen all over agricultur­al production, like foot-and-mouth disease in meat products and wool, African swine fever in the pork industry, and then avian flu in poultry.

“Containmen­t is always good, as this again opens up local production.”