The need for urgent action by the South African government to prevent another disastrous bird flu outbreak was stressed by poultry experts during a webinar on bird flu.
The webinar, hosted by FairPlay, featured veterinarians, scientists and a poultry industry leader. All agreed that the threat of a new bird flu outbreak was real and that government action, including approval of practical and implementable measures for vaccinations against the disease, was needed urgently.
No vaccinations are taking place because the department of agriculture is insisting on biosecurity and monitoring measures that the poultry industry says are onerous and too expensive.
After the intervention of agriculture minister John Steenhuisen, discussions between his department and the poultry industry are due to resume soon in an attempt to break this impasse.
Also stressed was the importance of government compensation for the chickens it orders culled during bird flu outbreaks. While this enables farmers to restock and stay in business, it is also an important disease control measure, because it encourages farmers to report bird flu outbreaks rather than hide them and allow the disease to spread.
The government has so far insisted that sick birds have no value and compensation is thus zero despite legislation that requires compensation to be paid. It is appealing against a court order last year that ordered compensation to be based on the value of healthy chickens.
Izaak Breitenbach of the SA Poultry Association (SAPA) said the industry was recovering from the R9.5 billion losses caused by the 2023 bird flu outbreak. The prospects for 2025 were good, provided there was not another outbreak.
However, with bird flu “out of control” in Europe and the United States, there was a high risk that the virus would once again be brought to South Africa by migratory birds.
The industry needed the additional protection of vaccination, as biosecurity measures and culling had proved inadequate to control the spread of the disease, he said. It was already too late for a vaccination to provide that protection this year, but a programme started now would result in additional cover from next year.
Poultry veterinarian Dr Shahn Bisschop said the poultry industry was unstable because farmers were afraid that an outbreak would wipe out their flocks. This deterred investment and expansion. Vaccination would result in a huge reduction in the amount of bird flu virus in circulation, making all farmers safer.
Millions of chickens were vaccinated every day against other diseases, Dr Bisschop said, and a bird flu vaccination programme could easily be added if acceptable protocols could be agreed.
Vaccination had to be a large-scale programme, because vaccinating 100 000 chickens was not the solution.
“You need to do it at scale. Herd immunity kicks in at 70%,” Bisschop said.
Animal health expert Dr TJ Mpofu noted the economic and social effects of a bird flu outbreak. It was not only poultry farmers who were affected he said. National food security suffered, consumers faced shortages and higher prices for eggs and chicken meat, poultry industry workers lost their jobs and informal traders selling chickens went out of business.
In conclusion, convenor Francois Baird of FairPlay said the threat of a bird flu outbreak was one of the biggest issues facing South Africa, but the government was “missing in action”.
He noted that, while agriculture minister John Steenhuisen could not attend the seminar, senior officials from his department had not replied to invitations to participate.
