CAPE TOWN, South Africa — South Africa has culled about 7.5 million chickens in an effort to contain dozens of outbreaks of two separate strains of avian influenza that threaten to create a shortage of eggs and poultry for consumers, the government and national poultry association said Tuesday.
At least 205,000 chickens have died from bird flu in at least 60 separate outbreaks across the country, with more than half of those outbreaks in Gauteng province, which includes the country’s biggest city, Johannesburg, and the capital, Pretoria.
Some grocery stores in Johannesburg were limiting the number of eggs customers were allowed to buy this week — in some cases to one carton of six eggs — and the government acknowledged there were “supply constraints.”
The government announced approximately 2.5 million chickens bred for their meat had been culled. The South African Poultry Association said another 5 million egg-laying chickens had been culled. The 7.5 million birds represented about 20-30 percent of South Africa’s total chicken stock, South African Poultry Association general manager Izaak Breitenbach said.
The government was moving to fast-track new import permits for companies to bring in eggs from other countries “to ensure sufficient supplies for consumers,” Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza said. Her ministry is also considering embarking on a vaccination program to halt the bird flu outbreaks and said the number of farms with cases was increasing.
Neighboring Namibia has banned chicken meat and egg imports from South Africa.
The outbreaks are hitting an industry already struggling due to an electricity crisis. Breitenbach said South Africa has had three major bird flu outbreaks in recent years, and the latest ones were “by far the worst,” already costing the industry losses of at least $25 million.
Vaccines would need to be imported and hopefully be ready to use in two to six months, he said. / AP