The South African poultry industry was ready to vaccinate chickens as soon as agreement was reached on a revised and more affordable set of vaccination requirements, SAPA’s Izaak Breitenbach said.
There was no shortage of vaccines, and the three vaccines for the H5 bird flu strain were all available in the country.
“If the minister gives us permission to vaccinate tomorrow, we can start vaccinating, and we should not run out of vaccines, as the constraint is in terms of foot and mouth (disease),” Breitenbach told a media webinar organised by FairPlay.
Breitenbach also explained that the benefits of vaccinating poultry against bird flu spread far wider than the vaccinated flocks. Other unvaccinated flocks are protected, too, because there is less free virus in the environment.
France and Egypt had both demonstrated this benefit.
When France vaccinated 20 million ducks, which harboured the bird flu virus, there was a general reduction in bird flu outbreaks in chicken flocks.
“Egypt has been vaccinating for two years now, and their incidence of avian influenza has reduced by more than 90%.”
When infected chickens were culled, a lot of free bird flu virus remained.
“Vaccination suppresses the total amount of free virus in the environment,” Breitenbach said.
