SA bird flu risk 'very remote'

2004-01-26 14:03

Pretoria - South Africans consuming imported poultry are not at risk of contracting the avian influenza which has claimed the lives of at least eight people in Asia, the agriculture department said on Monday.

A ban imposed last Friday on chicken imports from Thailand had ensured that no infected meat would reach the South African market, department spokesman Steve Galane said.

For added safety, the ban was made retrospective to December 21. Thai officials confirmed the outbreak to the South African government last Friday.

Departmental inspectors, together with staff of other government agencies, were enforcing the ban at all points of entry into South Africa. Any Thai chicken products that reached the country after December 21 would be incinerated or shipped back to Thailand.

The flu has claimed the lives of six people in Vietnam and two in Thailand in the past few days.

Other countries reportedly affected were Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Galane said South Africa did not import poultry from any of these countries.

Chicken imports

South African authorities issued only five permits late last year for chicken imports from Thailand - all of them to one company. The department has been in contact with the company to trace all the imports.

It found that two consignments of Thai chicken products arrived at South African harbours after December 21, while one more was on its way. In all three cases, the chicken will be destroyed or sent back to Thailand.

Galane said the first consignment of 25 tons arrived at Durban harbour last Saturday. On board the same ship was another 25 tons, which was en route to Cape Town.

Another 50-ton consignment was still on its way to South Africa from Thailand.

No permits have been issued for imports from any of the other flu-struck countries, Galane said, adding it would be impossible for anybody to bring poultry products into the country without a permit.

He pointed out that, in any event, South Africa imported only boneless chicken breasts from Thailand - a cut which experts said posed "a very, very remote" risk of containing the bird flu virus.

South Africa imported 25 tons of chicken from Thailand between January and September last year - only a fraction of its total poultry imports, according to Galane.

The flu, to which domestic poultry was especially prone, could spread to humans through the birds' saliva, faeces and nasal secretions. No human-to-human transmission has yet been reported.

People in close contact with live, infected poultry were at the greatest risk of contracting the flu, while experts have reportedly found no evidence that the virus could be contracted by eating cooked chicken products.

- SAPA