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The minister of agriculture, John Steenhuisen, announced the first ever mass vaccination of poultry in the country in order to protect the local flock from avian influenza, according to a press statement by the National Department of Agriculture (NDA).
Team effort
“Our vaccination team, comprised of poultry specialist vets from the University of Pretoria, along with the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), has received a list of farms to be vaccinated from the poultry industry and is prioritising high-risk areas and commercial flocks to contain the virus and prevent further culling. We have secured vaccine supply, ensured cold chain capacity, and are building in traceability and reporting mechanisms as part of a wider preparedness strategy,” said the minister.
In addition to this, 50 animal health technicians on a short-term contract to assist with the vaccination roll out, was appointed and their induction and refresher training is expected to start next week.
Industry overjoyed
This, says Izaak Breitenbach, CEO of the South African Poultry Association’s Broiler Organisation, is very good news. “The minister announced a few very positive measures to curb this disease. Until this moment we were not allowed to vaccinate pre-emptively, so this marks a new direction in our approach to manage this disease in the country.” The next very positive step, he says, is the measure to enhance the capacity in the field to conduct the vaccination programme.
“The farms to be vaccinated will have to be evaluated against the biosecurity protocol that was determined in November 2023, and we will continue to negotiate these protocols with the NDA. A very positive step is that the responsibility for these negotiations has been escalated to Mr Dipepeneneng Serage, the deputy director general: Agricultural production, biosecurity and natural resources, which should ensure much better progress.”
Avian Flu, he explains, is a controlled disease, which means one must apply to the NDA to be allowed to vaccinate. “A crucial criterion for such an application is that there are very strict biosecurity protocols in place. Furthermore, there are monitoring protocols. Once you have vaccinated your flock and the disease should enter your facility, you will not be able to pick up, based on mortalities, that you have a problem. One has to do the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to determine whether the chickens are positive for the disease. This makes the monitoring very expensive.”
Flock to be vaccinated
The category of chickens that will be vaccinated are the broiler chicken parent stock and commercial laying hens. They will be vaccinated between one and seven days of age.
The disease, says Breitenbach, is clearly out of control in both Europe and the US. He also has his doubts whether Brazil will be able to control the disease after the recent outbreak there. “It is clear that the answer to controlling the disease no longer lies in culling techniques. We must look at it from a totally different perspective and all roads lead to preventative vaccination.”
The outbreak pattern for the disease in South Africa, he says, indicates an outbreak more or less every third year. “Wild birds migrate from Europe to South Africa. This was what caused the outbreak the previous time. There are countries, such as Egypt and Indonesia, who have a good success record with vaccination. France vaccinated their ducks. In all these cases the incidence of the disease diminished dramatically.”
And all the so-called yard chickens? If more than 60% of chickens in the country are vaccinated, he explains, the incidence of the virus will be dramatically reduced, which will have a positive effect on the risk to all chickens, he said. – Izak Hofmeyr, Plaas Media
