H5N1 has jumped the species barrier, no concern for SA yet

H5N1 has jumped the species barrier, no concern for SA yet

Avian influenza, the H5N1 strain that has killed hundreds of millions of birds globally and millions of chickens in the past 18 months in South Africa, has now been detected in a Texas farmworker and dairy cows in six US states.

Smalltalkdaily Research’s independent analyst Anthony Clark yesterday said that the disease had jumped the species barrier, and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was now monitoring the evolving situation.

“Given my works in agriculture, food producers and soft commodities, it would be remiss of me not to highlight this developing story and make a comment in this note,” Clark said.

“There is no cause for concern at this stage within South Africa as the disease in dairy cattle is only reported in the US.”

Clark also said South Africa has had a virulent period of avian flu outbreaks which saw millions of poultry birds culled to contain the disease.

He added that the outbreak was still not yet eradicated, just controlled, and the sector was still awaiting approvals for a poultry vaccine from the government.

“Much of South Africa’s dairy herds are coastal in the Eastern Cape (greatest concentration), Natal and the Western Cape in terms of milk production with few poultry operations of scale,” Clark said.

“Much of the South African poultry production is in the highveld and central regions.”

Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) chief economist Wandile Sihlobo yesterday said animal diseases were increasingly a significant concern globally.

“In 2018, China was hard hit by the African swine fever, significantly reducing their pig herd and pork supplies,” Sihlobo said.

“In Europe, we continue to read about cases of avian influenza. In the US, we also regularly see cases of bird flu, which is now a significant issue.”

Sihlobo added that the situation, however, had become tricky in the US as Clark flagged something he (Sihlobo) was not watching.

He said with all this animal disease talk in the US, he must stress that the South African consumer was safe, and could continue to enjoy the various high-quality proteins.

“Stringent controls also ensure consumer safety even during outbreaks. We are not currently in the middle of an epidemic,” Sihlobo said.

“But I believe we are on a path to recovery from the recent outbreaks as a country. The industry is also increasing meat supplies. Thus, the meat prices have generally been sideways this year if one looks at their local supermarket.”

Dr Greg Celliers, a vet working in the poultry industry, told “Business Report” yesterday that this issue doesn’t mean much for South Africa for now.

He said about a week before the first case, there was a case up in Africa where they detected the disease in goat herds.

“South Africa has certainly had H5 in the Cape and H7 in Gauteng. Even our H5s are different to the influenzas that the US has,” Celliers said.

“So it is not a surprise that this virus has managed to mutate to another species. The virus is constantly mutating and constantly infecting species. This is just one that people happened to pick up and be surprised to have it in the milk. This is logical and not surprised it could be there,” Celliers said.

BUSINESS REPORT