MP hear vaccination no silver bullet in bird flu battle
The South African Poultry Association’s General Manager, Dr Abongile Balarane, says the country relies on about 27 million layer hens to produce eggs every day.
Balarane delivered a report to the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development of the National Assembly on the poultry industry.
The poultry industry is struggling to contain the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), which is plaguing not only South Africa but other parts of the world.
He told MPs about 30% of the egg industry had been negatively affected by the bird flu outbreak.
"If you look at the layer industry, there are about 5 million layers hens, and in South Africa, we have got 27 million layer hens that give us eggs on a daily basis. Out of that 27 million layer hens, 5 million were culled due to both the H5 and H7 strains over and above that," said Balarane.
"There is another 3.5 million layer hens that we suspect to be also affected by the influenza.
"We are talking about 30% of the local industry being affected by this strain; hence, in some of the retail stores, there have been shortages of eggs, and the notices that have been put there are because of these two dominant strains in the country."
Meanwhile, SAPA CEO Izaak Breitenbach says there is no insurance that is available in the country to assist farmers in dire times.
"As it stands right now, there is no insurance available for having avian influenza in South Africa simply because of the very high risk of the disease and no insurance company is prepared to that that risk and that brings us back to the issue of compensation being incentivised farmers to cull their hens and not lose their livelihoods.
"That is what is happening to them. If they cull, they lose their livelihoods. If they not culling we are actually worsening the chances of us controlling the disease."
The department’s health director Dr. Mpho Maja told the committee that there are important considerations that need to be taken into account if vaccinations are part of the control strategy.
"Vaccination does not prevent the introduction, it does not prevent infection, it only prevents the severity of the disease on the birds that are vaccinated similarly to humans vaccinating for flu.
"We need to be able to pick up infections as soon as they enter a flock, and as a result, our clinical surveillance when searching for viruses on the farm are easily picked up and dealt with to avoid giving the virus a chance to mutate."
"We also have ministers of SADC agreement that in the region, we will not be vaccinating or using vaccination as a tool of control. Two veterinarian officers of the region met two weeks ago, and they are concerned with the consideration of South Africa to allow vaccination.
“However, they do understand the situation we are sitting with the fact that if we are not able to control it, they are going to be affected as well."
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