Not one poultry farm has been given the go-ahead for vaccination against avian influenza, even as the industry has applied for permission and feels it is urgently needed.
SA experienced its worst bird flu outbreak in 2023 and both Quantum, the only JSE-listed egg producer, and Astral, SA’s biggest chicken producer, posted financial losses.
The SA Poultry Association (Sapa) estimated that 7.5-million chickens were culled since April 2023 and, unlike the situation abroad, farms are not compensated for costs running into hundreds of millions of rand.
The industry desperately wants vaccines to prevent new infections and culling.
The department of agriculture, land reform & rural development has approved two vaccines for use against the H5 strain, which caused outbreaks in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in 2023.
Sapa CEO Izaak Breitenbach said, “with the H5 strain prevalent in wild birds, a new infection can take place at any time and thus it is proposed that vaccination in at least those two provinces take place”.
An overseas vaccine against the H7 strain, which caused the worst outbreak in SA in 2023, failed to work and a new one is being developed locally, according to Breitenbach.
Vaccination “is an added measure that the industry urgently needs”, said Adel van der Merwe, executive at Nulaid Eggs & Farming Operations.
No applications for vaccinating against H5 have been approved because the department and the industry disagree over the protocol to implement the vaccines and how to manage the disease.
Onerous requirements
University of Pretoria lecturer Shahn Bisschop said: “The government has made the requirements and monitoring programme for companies that want to vaccinate very onerous. It will be extremely expensive. It involves testing all the breeders every week for bird flu.”
Bisschop is also a veterinarian at specialist poultry veterinarians Avimune.
Van der Merwe said the proposed vaccination protocols will be difficult to implement. “The surveillance and monitoring ... will be very costly.
“However, discussions with the department are ongoing.”
The issue is complex. The government is concerned that vaccinated birds could spread the disease without showing any symptoms and the undetected spread would cause new strains to develop. Unvaccinated birds die, making it easier to detect and control the disease. This is a risk industry is aware of.
Departmental spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo explained that it expects farmers to conduct frequent testing of vaccinated birds to detect if they have the disease while not showing symptoms. “Bird flu vaccines will only partially prevent infection of vaccinated chickens and the resultant circulation of disease [without symptoms] may even prove more detrimental than leaving flocks unvaccinated.”
However, the industry feels that while testing is necessary, it cannot be done so often that the cost becomes prohibitive.
When Business Day asked the department if it had approved a single application from industry to vaccinate, it said it is evaluating requests.
“Government has no objection to the use of vaccines provided the correct biosecurity and surveillance measures are implemented on farms and if the vaccine is used under prescribed conditions under private veterinary supervision with government oversight.”
Complicated
Bisschop said: “The issue is complicated, so you’re going to get different interpretations from different people, depending on what they’re trying to achieve.
“Government is trying to prevent the spread of bird flu. Industry is trying to get back into business. It is challenging to reconcile these two objectives.”
Complicating the issue is that the government and industry have different views on whether bird flu is endemic and how to control it.
Quantum, the producer of Nulaid eggs, said in its annual report in December that bird flu outbreaks have become “endemic in SA”, meaning the disease cannot be eradicated by culling at each outbreak.
Calling bird flu endemic “is a more politically loaded statement than one would think”, explained Bisschop. “If you have an endemic disease, then you are going to have to live with it.”
The department disagreed with Quantum and wishes to eradicate the disease by culling.
Ngcobo said: “Avian influenza is not endemic in SA.”
He said: “SA follows the same pattern and control measures as most countries in the world.”
But experts say that unlike the rest of the world, farmers are not compensated for losses caused by culling.
Ngcobo said the government still wishes to eliminate the disease. “Globally, no country has been able to manage to eradicate the disease successfully by vaccination alone.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.