The South African government is stepping up bio security measures to combat a severe avian influenza outbreak that has already killed 2.6 million chickens nationwide.
The 50 HPAI H7 and 10 HPAI H5 subtypes of the virus have affected five of the nation’s nine provinces, according to a statement released on Monday by the department of agriculture.
The process of getting a vaccine, it continued, had been expedited due to the inherent danger of the illness spreading to humans.
“Due to the high probability of avian influenza virus mutating and becoming zoonotic, care needs to be taken on the quality and efficacy parameters of the vaccine chosen for use in this exercise,” the department added.
While the majority of the HPAI H5 outbreak is occurring in the Western Cape, the virulent HPAI H7 strain is most prevalent in the Gauteng province.
The biggest poultry producer in South Africa, Astral Foods, issued a warning last week about a shortage of eggs and poultry meat in the coming months as a result of the bird flu outbreak and effects of power outages on the poultry industry.
Source-BBC
