There are growing concerns about the future of poultry exports after last week’s announcement of a second outbreak of avian flu at an Mpumalanga-based breeding facility owned by one of South Africa’s biggest chicken producers, Astral Foods.
“This outbreak is being managed with extreme care and diligence on the back of experiences gained with the first outbreak at Villiers earlier this year,” said Gary Arnold, managing director: agriculture for Astral Foods.
Excluding the new outbreak, the total number of outbreaks officially confirmed to date by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Daff) stands at 10.
The department launched an aggressive campaign to prevent the spread of the highly contagious disease by placing the farms under quarantine and stopping the movement of chickens and chicken products onto and off the farms.
Arnold said it now appeared that the H5N8 was endemic to Mpumalanga and Gauteng, highlighting that Astral was actively engaging with government to regulate the use of vaccination programmes against the virus.
Chris Schutte, Astral CEO, added that the outbreak in South Africa was no longer just a concern for individual poultry farmers, but was of national interest to all “poultry-dependent industries and job creators”.
When the avian flu outbreak first occurred in South Africa, a report by RMB Global Markets suggested that up to R100 million in export revenues were at risk if preventative measures were not found.
