SA 'safe from bird flu'

2005-10-20 12:06

Johannesburg - South Africa, the world's biggest producer of ostrich meat, on Thursday said the chances of the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus appearing here were minimal due to a close system of checks.

"We are keeping a watch on ostriches and the government, in tandem with a company, collecting and testing droppings of migratory birds from Asia in (the port city of) Durban," said agriculture ministry spokesperson Steve Galane.

"Nothing has shown up so far. We are not at risk because we have not been ordering livestock and chickens from the affected countries in Asia," he said.

"We are intensifying quarantine periods for anything coming into the country. Our live bait (of birds) we import from countries which are avian influenza free," he said.

Last year, South Africa culled thousands of ostriches in the Eastern Cape region following the outbreak of a less virulent strain of bird flu in two farms.

The outbreak led to the European Union banning ostrich meat exports from South Africa.

Scientists and health professionals fear H5N1, commonly referred to as the Asian strain, may mutate and acquire genes from the human flu virus that would make it highly infectious as well as lethal - possibly killing millions worldwide as the influenza pandemic of 1918 did.

- AFP