The need to remove obstacles to bird flu vaccinations is urgent, as bird flu season is approaching, the South African Poultry Association (SAPA) has stressed.
“It’s almost too late,” SAPA’s Izaak Breitenbach told Radio 702 in an interview.South Africa’s bird flu risk period started in March every year, and continued until October.
The discussion followed a statement last week in which SAPA called for a meeting with Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen because negotiations with departmental officials had not resulted in a go-ahead for vaccinations.
Breitenbach told Radio 702 that discussions with the Department of Agriculture since 2023 had failed to produce agreement on an acceptable set of biosecurity protocols with which farmers had to comply before vaccinations could begin.
“The biosecurity standards they have set are so onerous that not even our export farms, that are very sophisticated, can comply.”
This was why the industry has asked at the end of last year for a “very urgent” meeting with Minister Steenhuisen. Steenhuisen had promised to reply after discussing the issue with his departmental director general. No response had yet been received.
The urgent need was to avoid a repetition of the 2023 bird flu outbreak, the worst in South Africa’s history, Breitenbach said. A vaccination programme was required because the industry had learned in 2023 that biosecurity measures alone were not sufficient to contain bird flu outbreaks.
