Steps taken to put curb on avian flu
THE government has introduced a raft of conditions on the trading of live chickens in an effort to contain an outbreak of avian influenza on two farms in Mpumalanga‚ where eggs were destroyed and about 260 000 chickens culled last week.
Agriculture‚ Forestry and Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana said yesterday that no cases had been reported so far in other provinces and the farms were quarantined.
He said that as a precautionary measure‚ buyers or sellers of more than five live chickens for any purpose other than slaughter at a registered abattoir would be subjected to the following conditions:
ý Live chicken sellers‚ including commercial farmers‚ and traders, must register with the Poultry Disease Management Agency (PDMA);
ý Only registered traders are allowed to trade. It is the responsibility of the seller and buyer to ensure that their counterpart is registered;
ý Farmers may only sell live chickens certified as healthy by a veterinarian or animal health technician;
ý Traders may only sell healthy chickens and must keep records as prescribed; and
ý Sellers and buyers registering with the PDMA would have to sign an undertaking to adhere to the required control measures. Zokwana said these conditions applied to sellers of live broiler chickens‚ live spent layer hens‚ live spent breeder birds‚ point of lay pullets and any other chickens that might fall into these categories.
There had been calls for vaccinations but he had been advised this would not be in the best interest of the country and producers.
Vaccination would create an endemic situation‚ and affect surveillance efforts and export certification as all of the country’s trade partners wanted products from countries where vaccination was not practised.
A number of countries had suspended trade of raw meat‚ eggs and live birds from South Africa.
The minister said this was mainly because South African veterinarians had to certify that the country was free of any avian influenza and, since June 22, they had not been in a position provide this certification. – TimesLIVE