The poultry industry has called on Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen to take decisive action to facilitate the implementation of a flu vaccination programme.
Political intervention by Steenhuisen would make the requirements less onerous and is the only way forward, Izaak Breitenbach of the SA Poultry Association told the FairPlay Bulletin.
With the bird flu threat rising, the poultry industry is desperate to start a vaccination programme to prevent a repeat of the 2023 outbreak – the worst in the country’s history, which cost producers R9.5 billion. While vaccines are available, not a single dose has been administered because of the onerous requirements set by Steenhuisen’s department.
Breitenbach said the agriculture department’s mandate was to prevent bird flu outbreaks, so it had set an extremely high level of vaccination requirements – even more stringent than those set in the European Union.
The requirements were so high that no poultry producer could implement them, so vaccination was not happening, he said. This in turn created the risk of another major bird flu outbreak, chicken shortages and higher consumer prices.
That’s where the political decision comes in, Breitenbach told FairPlay. “It would be up to Steenhuisen to ensure that the requirements are revised to a level that makes vaccination practical, affordable and implementable.”
The biggest problem is the number of tests the department requires poultry farmers to conduct.
While some tests are necessary, the level being required is not, according to Breitenbach. These requirements have not been modified, despite ongoing negotiations.
He said that the government wanted a lot of tests done very frequently – every farm had to be tested every month and visited weekly for post-mortems. A huge number of samples had to be taken. This would require many times the number of veterinarians currently working in the poultry industry.
He stressed the urgent need to find a more practical solution.
Bird flu was sweeping through Europe and North America, Breitenbach said, and as it was carried by wild migratory birds, the risk of a new outbreak in South Africa was high.
“It can happen any day now. It's this time of year. Europe is full of influenza, it might come to us, and we can have these extreme losses; we can have price increases and food shortages.”
Breitenbach said that, while vaccination against bird flu was not yet widespread in major poultry-producing countries, the French success showed what vaccination could achieve.
“In France, they vaccinated 20 million ducks. They've only had one outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in ducks, and it was immediately contained.
“So vaccination can be a very successful way of treating highly pathogenic avian influenza,” he said.
