Bird flu alarm in South Africa

A reporter in Pretoria quoted South Africa's News24 news agency on September 23 as saying that the country is facing the worst bird flu situation since the beginning of the year.

South Africa is facing two highly dynamic strains of avian influenza virus.

A statement from manufacturer Quantum Foods (September 22) said that the company had lost nearly 2 million chickens due to the disease. Previously, another large manufacturer - Astral Foods (September 21) also commented: 'The outbreak of bird flu is the worst outbreak that South Africa has ever seen' and 'has caused a shortage There is a shortage in the supply of food eggs to the market and it is expected that the supply of poultry meat into the value chain may be negatively affected in the coming months . The epidemic is spreading in the northeastern region of Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces . at an alarming rate'. 

Previously, the South African Poultry Association (SAPA) (September 12) also confirmed that the shortage of chickens and eggs due to the avian flu epidemic could last until the end of October. SAPA also said that South Africa is having to facing two different highly dynamic strains of the bird flu virus, H5N1 and a newly identified strain, H7N6 , after the country detected its first cases of bird flu on commercial farms last month. 4.

According to the association, the number of avian flu cases in South Africa this year has so far been higher than in any year since the outbreak was first reported on commercial farms in 2017.