South Africa’s first bird flu vaccination programme is getting underway, following the announcement that Astral Foods, the country’s largest poultry producer, will be the first to vaccinate its chickens.
Astral announced that it will start vaccinating its poultry breeding stock at one of its Gauteng breeding farms “in the coming few days”. The site represents about 5% of Astral’s total breeding stock.
Astral CEO Gary Arnold said this was the beginning of an on-going process. Astral would be applying to the Department of Agriculture for vaccination permits for a number of its other breeding operations.
“We also believe that this provides the Department of Agriculture with a working example of the vaccination strategy. We thank the Department for all their hard work in achieving an outcome that is of importance for the industry. This breakthrough will now allow commercial application of the available vaccine in South Africa for the first time.
“Given the global rise in bird flu infections, this development represents a critical step in ensuring food security as well as protecting jobs in South Africa. We see this approval as a great advancement in the fight against bird flu,” Arnold said.
Vaccination will be against the H5 strain of the bird flu virus, using a commercially available vaccine supplied by an international manufacturer.
“Astral would like to highlight that this vaccine is not for the H7 strain of bird flu which South Africa encountered during the severe 2023 outbreak. However, the prevalent disease risk, both globally and in South Africa at present, is the H5 strain of bird flu. A locally manufactured H7 vaccine awaits final registration,” Astral said.
Dr. Obed Lukhele, Astral’s Technical Executive, said the vaccine would ensure that chickens develop immunity to infection from any potential circulating strain of the H5 virus.
Immunity would develop within three weeks of being vaccinated. The vaccine would enable chickens to survive infection.
“The vaccine does not prevent infection from a H5 bird flu virus, but the producer will at least not suffer huge financial implications from losing their breeding stock or having to cull the birds due to infection.
“A vaccinated flock will also reduce virus shedding and reduce widespread contamination of the environment from the virus. The vaccine allows the birds to recover and continue production, as the impact of an infection in the field is far less severe than if the birds were not protected by vaccination,” Lukhele said.
The strict conditions for vaccinating
The Astral bird flu vaccination programme is going ahead under the “very strict” biosecurity and monitoring requirements set by the Department of Agriculture in November 2023.
The poultry industry has been trying to have the requirements made less strict, as some producers said they were too onerous and too expensive to implement.
“The requirements under which Astral has been granted permission to vaccinate include; strict control of the vaccine through prescription for use by a Poultry Veterinarian, and controlled supply by the relevant animal health company,” the Astral announcement said.
“Equally important is the storage and security of the vaccine stocks by the poultry producer which will be audited by the Department of Agriculture. The vaccinated poultry breeding stock has to be kept under very strict biosecurity conditions, and will be subjected to extensive weekly and monthly surveillance using molecular diagnostic techniques for possible challenges from any prevalent strains of the virus in the field.
“Surveillance of the vaccinated birds will be under the supervision of a team of private poultry veterinarians, as well as State Veterinarians. In addition, the progeny of the vaccinated poultry breeding stock has to be completely traceable in the downstream poultry integration, and compliance at this level is critical,” the statement said
