Bird flu epidemic raises chicken import concerns

African food producer RCL FOODS and the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) have welcomed the South African government’s response in joining several other countries in banning German chicken.

This follows a warning by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) that further outbreaks of a severe strain of bird flu might occur. Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Bosnia and Herzegovina have taken similar preventive measures.

The highly contagious H5N8 strain of avian flu has been identified in eight European countries in the past several weeks and although most cases involved wild birds, measures have been taken to contain flocks to prevent the spreading of the disease to the food industry. Despite this, H5N8 was confirmed on a poultry farm in the Netherlands, and 190 000 ducks were culled, Dutch officials reported last weekend. Earlier, the United States, which suffered heavy losses in an outbreak last year when more than 50 million birds were destroyed, has been cautioned to expect further cases too.

It has been reported that domestic turkey and duck farms in Germany and Hungary have also experienced outbreaks, and that all birds on affected farms had to be culled. “To date Hungary has destroyed 68 727 birds, while Germany culled more than 33 000 birds as a precautionary measure, including chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys.

This raises a red flag regarding the chicken industry, which exports to South Africa, said RCL FOODS spokesman Stephen Heath. Tens of thousands of tonnes of surplus chicken is dumped in the South African market monthly, and the European Union is one of the main sources of this meat.

“Precautionary measures are urgently needed until all health risks have been identified and cleared,” says Heath. RCL FOODS and FAWU have called for an interim ban on all chicken imports from Europe until the crisis has been averted.