Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
New strain of avian flu could also affect humans, warns vet
People must avoid contact with sick birds
WHILE there have been no confirmed cases of avian influenza in humans, state veterinarian Aileen Pypers told a media briefing humans were susceptible to this strand of the flu virus.
The briefing was held in the office of Alan Winde, MEC of Economic Development, on Thursday to update information on the outbreak which has caused panic in the poultry industry since August 9.
She urged people dealing with infected birds to be careful.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases is testing workers who have been involved in the culling process but so far has not picked up any cause for concern.
Diana Hardie, clinical virologist and head of the diagnostic virology laboratory at Groote Schuur Hospital, agreed that although there had been no confirmed cases in humans, people should avoid contact with sick birds and wash their hands with soap and water if they handled birds that could be infected.
She said this strain of flu (H5N8) emerged in 2014 and had caused widespread infection in Europe and Asia among wild birds and domestic poultry before heading south.
Avian influenza is a viral respiratory disease of birds believed to be transmitted by wild migratory birds.
The virus can spread into domestic flocks kept outdoors through faecal contamination from wild birds, while infection among indoor flocks is spread via airborne discharges and faeces.
State veterinarian: epidemiology Lesley van Helden said this was the first outbreak of H5N8 in South Africa.
“So our poultry industry is a little bit unprepared for it.
“Many of the farms have contingency plans in place, but many others have been caught unaware and have no plan as to how they are going to deal with it or how they will dispose of the carcases.”
Since the first cases were confirmed in August, there had been a further 17 cases which had led to 46 ostrich farms being quarantined.
Winde said more than 200 000 chickens and ducks had died or been culled since then.
The decrease in supply of poultry products in the market would put pressure of food prices and a further strain on households.
The current outbreak had to date cost the industry in the Western Cape between R10 million and R20m.
While there was no definite data to confirm this, he said, based on the number of farms quarantined and stock culled, it was the closest estimate currently available.
State vets said people should not kill wild birds as this would only exacerbate the problem.
“They will just change their pattern of movement and infect birds in other areas and it is quite unnecessary to kill the wild birds.”
Winde urged all poultry farmers and the public to con- tact authorities if they suspected any birds were ill.
His department was in talks regarding compensa- tion for the affected farms of between 75% to 90%. He pointed out that the poultry industry was an important one for the Western Cape:
There are an estimated 29 million birds in the commercial poultry sector in the province. About 185 000 are backyard chickens. The ostrich sector pro- vides 15 000 direct jobs and 100 000 people depend on the sector indirectly for their livelihoods.