AI reaches South Africa
The AI alert, triggered last month by the UN's FAO, for Africa, is real. South Africa is the first country to report a bird flu outbreak in a commercial farm. An outbreak of Avian Influenza was detected on a farm in South Africa's Gauteng province, the Ministry of Agriculture said. About 300 birds died of bird flu at a commercial laying farm in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, with samples from the farm testing positive for the H5 strain, the Department of Agriculture, Agrarian Reform and Rural Development said in a statement.
The birds in the affected farm shed were destroyed and the property quarantined while veterinary authorities investigated the extent of the outbreak. The same farm was also affected by the 2017 outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain of avian influenza, which forced farmers to slaughter millions of birds and led neighboring countries, including Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana to ban poultry imports from South Africa.
The H5N8 strain of avian influenza is highly pathogenic among birds but poses little risk to human health. The Department warned poultry farmers to watch out for signs of the disease and report any suspicions to the nearest state veterinarian.
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