Following a devastating season of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks in 2023, the South African poultry sector is gradually recovering. Elsewhere in Africa, isolated outbreaks in poultry have been confirmed recently in Benin, Guinea, and Nigeria. Meanwhile, Ghana has recorded its first human infection with the H9N2 virus.
South Africa appears to be emerging from a damaging series of HPAI outbreaks linked to two virus serotypes.
At the end of September, the national veterinary authority declared to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) that a series of outbreaks linked to the H5N1 variant had been “resolved” earlier in the same month.
Between April of 2023 and mid-September, domestic birds (poultry and ostriches) tested positive for this virus at 29 commercial premises spread across most of the country’s provinces. Directly impacted were close to 1.85 million birds in total.
Meanwhile an outbreak series involving the H7N6 HPAI virus variant is still ongoing. However, reports of new outbreaks are infrequent, and no further cases have been registered with WOAH since July.
So far, the number of the nation’s poultry affected by this virus variant has passed 11.9 million at a total of 116 commercial premises. Majority of the outbreaks occurred in Gauteng, although cases were confirmed in seven other provinces.
Impact of past HPAI outbreaks on South Africa’s poultry markets
Together, the 2023 outbreaks directly impacted close to 13.8 million of the nation’s commercial poultry, based on WOAH reports.
Affected were 25% of the country’s breeding chickens, according to industry body, the South African Poultry Association (SAPA).
In the current issue of its Poultry Bulletin, Izaak Breitenbach, head of SAPA’s Broiler Organisation, reports that a potential crisis in the nation’s chicken meat supplied was averted. To avoid shortages during the crucial holiday period, the nation’s chicken companies — working independently — imported a total of 280 million fertile hatching eggs to restock breeder flocks, with oversight from SAPA and the national government. According to SAPA, the majority of these eggs were sourced from Brazil.
Also affected by the HPAI outbreaks were around 30% of South Africa’s laying hens. At the peak of the outbreaks, shortages of shell eggs were reported across the country.
It will take around 17 months for this sector to recover completely, according to Dr. Abongile Balarane, head of SAPA’s Egg Organisation. That means that domestic supplies will normalize by May of 2025, he said. Until then, liquid and dried egg products are being imported for food processors and food service. Early next year, the replacement pullets will start coming into lay, and domestic shell egg supplies will begin to pick up.
HPAI vaccination: authorized but not employed
In November of last year, the national government opened up the possibility of HPAI vaccination for South African poultry.
However, SAPA reports that no company has even begun to vaccinate birds. Breitenbach said that the official guidelines are too onerous and costly, particularly regarding biosecurity requirements and monitoring. Furthermore, he said, there are insufficient officials in the country to administer the vaccination campaign, or veterinarians to carry out the required testing.
In South Africa, three vaccines against H5 HPAI viruses have official approval, and are not prohibitively expensive. However, vaccines developed against H7 strains are yet to receive authorization there.
Although the country’s last confirmed HPAI outbreak started 11 months ago, South Africa is yet to be able to declare its freedom from HPAI. This is because there are around 30 laying flocks still in production that survived the infection. A declaration of disease freedom can only be made once those birds exit production. Until then, restrictions remain in place for South African exports of chicken products, day-old chicks, and hatching eggs (with some exceptions).
HPAI developments elsewhere in African poultry
Following a five-month hiatus, the H5N1 HPAI virus has been detected again at a poultry farm in Nigeria.
Affected was a flock of 1,590 birds at a premises in the state of Delta at the end of August, according to the WOAH notification. This state is located in the south of the country.
The current HPAI outbreak series in the West African country began in December of 2020. Since that time, more than 2.4 million of the nation’s poultry have been directly impacted by outbreaks at 457 locations, based on reporting to WOAH. Cases have been detected in 31 of Nigeria’s 37 states/regions.
Since the start of 2024, the Nigerian animal health agency has notified WOAH of just four HPAI outbreaks in poultry linked to the H5N1 virus serotype.
Latest update on the HPAI situation in sub-Saharan Africa from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO; dated September 19) includes two further HPAI outbreaks in West Africa that have been reported retrospectively.
These involved one poultry flock in the Republic of Benin in December of last year, and another in the Republic of Guinea in January of 2024. In both cases, presence of the H5N1 HPAI virus serotype was confirmed, but no further details are given.
These outbreaks brought the number of nations in the region with confirmed H5 or H5N1 HPAI outbreaks since October 1 of last year to seven, according to the FAO. Over the same period, the H7N6 virus serotype was detected in 67 South African poultry flocks, and in laying hens at one farm in the East African state of Mozambique.
First human H9N2 case in Ghana
Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) received confirmation of the first human infection of avian influenza A(H9N2) in Ghana.
The patient was a child under five years of age living in the Upper East region of the West African state. Initial onset of symptoms was in the first week of May this year, and within days, the child tested positive for seasonal influenza A(H3N2). In August, the patient tested positive for the avian influenza A(H9N2) virus after a worsening of respiratory symptoms. The child has since recovered.
Illness in poultry in Upper East has been reported, but the cause has not been identified. The child had no known contact with poultry, and no other cases occurred in the area.
Since November of 2017, a low-pathogenic avian influenza virus of the H9N2 serotype has been circulating in Ghanaian poultry, according to WHO.
View our continuing coverage of the global avian influenza situation in poultry, and on disease developments in the U.S. dairy sector.
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