The rapid pre-winter spread of bird flu across Europe has resulted in South Africa banning poultry imports from all European countries. This is the first time this has happened, and follows multiple outbreaks of the disease as the cold winter months approach.
The last remaining European country licensed to export to South Africa was Ireland. A ban on the import of Irish poultry was announced earlier this month after bird flu outbreaks in that country.
Eight other European Union countries, plus the United Kingdom, are on the banned list following outbreaks in multiple countries in the lead-up to the northern winter.
WattPoultry reports that, so far in 2025, 22 European countries have recorded a total of 399 HPAI outbreaks in commercial poultry. In almost all of these, the presence of the H5N1 virus serotype has been confirmed.
There has also been a rapid increase in bird flu infections in Europe’s wild birds. Migratory wild birds are responsible for the spread of the disease across countries and continents.
The EU, then including the UK, used to be the main source of South Africa’s chicken imports, including vast volumes of dumped chicken portions. Since 2016, successive waves of bird flu have reduced that flow.
In September 2025, the EU supplied only 2.8% of South Africa’s chicken imports, compared to 63% in 2016. This will reduce further as the complete ban takes effect.
For the past 10 years, Brazil has taken over as the largest supplier of chicken imports, which are mainly mechanically deboned meat (MDM) and offal products.
