A suspected outbreak of avian influenza (bird flu) in the Eastern Cape province has halted all movement of ostriches to the Western Cape until a confirmed diagnosis has been made regarding the cause of serious mortalities at three ostrich farms in the Cradock-Somerset East region of the Eastern Cape.
In a statement released on Wednesday, minister of agriculture for the Western Cape province Cobus Dowry said that as the disease could pose a serious threat to ostrich-meat exports from the ostrich abattoirs in the Western Cape, the province has requested the Eastern Cape not to send birds for slaughtering to the Western Cape until the government has received more clarity on the infection.
Currently, samples from the affected farms are being examined by the Western Cape Veterinarian Laboratories. The disease has provisionally been diagnosed as the high pathogenic avian influenza, which caused major ostrich mortalities in the Eastern Cape early in 2004.
”This diagnosis has not been confirmed yet,” Dowry said. ”But until we have more clarity on the infection, no birds will be accepted from the Eastern Cape. Otherwise, the European Union could immediately revoke our export status should the disease spread to the Western Cape.”
Dowry said a meeting between the national Department of Agriculture and the Eastern Cape department of agriculture was held on Monday at Bisho, to discuss the situation. It was confirmed that a ban has been put on the movement of ostriches from the Eastern Cape to the Western Cape.
The situation will be reconsidered once a clearer picture on the control is received from the Eastern Cape.
”By the end of this week we should have a much clearer picture of the type of virus concerned as well as the extent of the infections in the Western Cape,” Dowry noted.
”Our most important priority is to protect the ostrich industry of the Western Cape. It was therefore necessary to engage with disaster management in the province and all systems were put in place with road controls and movement monitoring in the Karoo and Oudtshoorn areas,” he concluded. — I-Net Bridge