South Africa’s agriculture department has confirmed that talks would be held with poultry industry leaders to overcome the impasse that is preventing the start of a vaccination programme against bird flu.
A departmental spokesperson told Business Day that the discussions were being arranged at the request of agriculture minister John Steenhuisen.
Earlier, the department had called off talks with the industry after the two sides could not agree on a practical, affordable and acceptable set of requirements that farmers must meet before vaccinations against bird flu will be allowed.
The poultry industry has said that no vaccinations are taking place because the current biosecurity and monitoring requirements are too onerous and too expensive. This was repeated during a FairPlay webinar last week, when the industry and veterinarians said a vaccination programme was essential to help prevent another disastrous bird flu outbreak.
Business Day then sought comment from the agriculture department, which responded that it had signed into effect a protocol for vaccination of poultry “under very specific conditions that are designed to prevent inadvertent spread of the disease by vaccinated animals.”
The poultry industry had made Minister Steenhuisen aware of its concerns regarding the protocols, it said.
“Minister Steenhuisen met with the officials in the department and requested that they engage with SAPA to refine some measures to come up with a protocol that is practically implementable and workable while ensuring early detection and managing the outbreak should a farm be infected,” the department stated.
The boss is watching, so there’s a chance that negotiations will succeed at last.
