The SA Poultry Association (Sapa) has called on the government to explain what it has labelled as “the striking differences” it is applying to the vaccination programmes for cattle and poultry.
Sapa said on Tuesday that Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen had promised a “mass vaccination” campaign against bird flu in June 2025, but little had happened because his department was insisting on regulations that producers say were too complex and too costly to implement. As a result, only one producer had gone ahead with a pilot project on one site, the association said.
“Minister Steenhuisen has also promised a mass vaccination of South Africa’s cattle in an effort to combat widespread outbreaks of foot and mouth disease. Here there has been more progress – though not as much as farmers would like – because the regulations appear to be far laxer,” Sapa said.
It added that both avian influenza and foot and mouth were controlled diseases, which meant the government took charge of vaccination programmes and farmers could not simply go ahead on their own.
While the bird flu vaccination programme had stalled because of the strict rules in place, Sapa had noted the ease with which foot and mouth vaccinations were approved, the association said.
Sapa Broiler Organisation CEO, Izaak Breitenbach, said the association had raised this inconsistency with the relevant government committee and was advised to take it up
directly with the Minister.
“I have accordingly written to Minister Steenhuisen and hope to meet him to discuss the issue,” said Breitenbach.
Sapa noted that foot and mouth vaccinations were being carried out without a clearly defined vaccination and surveillance protocol.
“This is in sharp contrast to the poultry industry, which has been struggling unsuccessfully to negotiate a more practical and affordable set of rules than the ones the government has laid down,” the association said.
“There is special and accelerated registration for vaccines against all three known strains of foot and mouth disease. Not so for bird flu.”
It said vaccines had been registered for the H5 bird flu strain but there had been no approval of vaccines against the H7 and H9 strains, which also posed a material risk to the poultry industry. The cattle industry is also getting substantial financial and personnel support, which has not been afforded to the poultry industry.
“State veterinarians are being deployed to assist cattle farmers with vaccination, and funding of approximately R1.8 billion is reportedly being sought to support the cattle sector. By contrast, poultry producers are expected to bear the full cost of vaccination, surveillance, and the employment of animal health technicians,” Breitenbach said.
“We have raised these issues in a spirit of constructive engagement because we believe that consistent, transparent and risk-based principles should be applied across all controlled diseases.”
