August 13, 2004

 

 

Nationwide Bird Flu Tests Conducted In South Africa As Culling Continues
 

South Africa was conducting nationwide tests Thursday on ostriches as it continued to slaughter diseased birds at two farms. This move follows an outbreak of bird flu which had led to a ban on poultry exports.

 

"We are doing extensive surveillance in all the provinces throughout the country so that we are able to see if it is a localised problem," agriculture ministry official Segoati Mahlangu told AFP.

 

Mahlangu said the culling -- which began on Tuesday -- was being conducted by three teams in two affected farms in the Eastern Cape province.

 

There are 6,000 ostriches at the two affected farms in the Somerset East area. But the agriculture ministry has said that as many as 30,000 could be put down in a 30 kilometer (18-mile) radius.

 

"We are on track, we will be releasing a progress report tomorrow," he said. "The culling in those two farms is expected to go on until next week."

 

Tests conducted last week at the two farms found traces of the mild strain of avian influenza H5N2. The agriculture ministry has said this strain is not harmful to humans.

 

A more virulent strain of bird flu, H5N1, hit Asia this year, killing 24 people and leading to the deaths or culling of almost 200 million birds.

 

The outbreak in South Africa prompted the European Union and Switzerland to ban imports of ostrich meat from South Africa, the world's biggest exporter of the product.

 

Swiss authorities on Wednesday said they had indefinitely suspended all imports of poultry from South Africa including live poultry, meat and feathers.

 

"It's mainly for veterinary reasons, this is by far the biggest risk," spokesman Franz Geiser told AFP in Bern.

 

"We will see how the situation evolves," he added.

 

Switzerland is one of South Africa's largest export markets for poultry.

 

South African ostrich farmers have warned that the slaughter and an export ban on all poultry meat and products slapped on Friday could cost the ostrich industry some 100 million rand (16.2 million dollars/13.2 million euros) in losses.

 

But they said later that if 6,000 ostriches affected in the two farms were slaughtered and no more diseased birds were found, the losses would be about 30 million rand per month.

 

This is not the first time that South Africa has grappled with bird flu. There have been outbreaks in the early 1990s that were contained, according to the agriculture ministry.