The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said that bird flu had been detected on two more locations.
Department spokesperson, Bomikazi Molapo, said in a statement on Tuesday that this brought the number of location where bird flu had been detected to four.
“The HPAI H5N8 virus was confirmed in two further locations in South Africa, bringing the total of affected properties to four. The new locations involved commercial layer chickens on farms in Gauteng and Mpumalanga,” she said.
‘”The two farms were immediately placed under quarantine by the state veterinarian. The quarantine includes, as a minimum, a prohibition of the movement of chickens and chicken products onto and off the farm,” said Molapo.
She said the necessary measures have been taken to contain and eliminate the disease as efficiently as possible on both farms.
Molapo said forward tracing was done and cull chicken depots were identified, which had received live cull chickens from one of the affected farms in the last 21 days.
“The records of these cull depots are being followed up to trace as many of these chickens as possible. The new Poultry Disease management Agency (PDMA) system of registration of persons buying and selling live chickens made it possible to trace these culls”.
In a lengthy statement on Tuesday, she said that the PDMA registration process of sellers and traders of live chickens has progressed well and a number of initial challenges were ironed out.
“All role players in the poultry industry involved in the buying and selling of live chickens are strongly encouraged to comply with the registration and other requirements that are designed to allow the trade of live chickens to continue without compromising animal health.”
Molapo said the depopulation of the two poultry sites affected in June is complete.
She said the export of chickens and chicken products from registered HPAI free compartments is continuing to countries that accept guarantees from such compartments. “There is good cooperation from registered compartments to increase the testing frequency to monthly testing,” she said.
