By Carien Kruger
South Africa has banned imports of poultry, eggs and fresh and frozen chicken from Brazil because of the first bird flu outbreak on a commercial farm in this country.
Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of chicken, is also the country from which South Africa imports the most chicken, largely mechanically deboned meat, which is a type of paste used in processed products such as polony and sausages.
The South African Department of Agriculture said in a statement that on May 15, Brazil reported an outbreak of the H5N1 virus strain of highly contagious bird flu on a breeding farm in the municipal area of Montenegro in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
South Africa will continue to import consignments of products packed before or on 30 April, as well as heat-treated products, where the risk of virus transmission has been reduced.
The two countries’ veterinary chief officers met on May 19 so that Brazil could inform South Africa about the latest developments and its strategy for controlling the disease. “At the meeting, it was agreed that Brazil would provide additional information for South Africa’s consideration,” the statement said.
Enough chicken pieces, but polonies are impacted
The South African Poultry Association (SAPA) said the import ban should not lead to shortages of chicken in South Africa because South African producers can fill the gap.
“We currently produce about 21.5 million chickens a week and the industry has the ability to increase it by about another million chickens a week,” said Izaak Breitenbach, CEO of the broiler chicken organisation of SAPA.
“Because demand for chicken is lower in winter, the additional supply should be sufficient to ensure that there are no shortages of chicken, or that the price rises due to shortages,” says the SAPA.
South African producers supply more than 80% of the chicken consumed in the country.
Breitenbach said mechanically deboned meat could be a problem because it is not produced in large quantities in South Africa.
Mechanically deboned meat represents about 60% of South Africa’s poultry imports from Brazil. The second largest category is waste products such as chicken heads, feet, stomach and liver. A much smaller portion, namely 4.5%, are chicken pieces on the bone such as hindquarters, thighs, drumsticks and wings.
According to Breitenbach, Brazil has no agreement for a compartment system with South Africa, something that the country itself must apply for but has not done, even though it has had increasing bird flu incidents in wild birds since 2023.
Breitenbach said one would have to see if the Brazilian outbreak could be curtailed. “The spread of the virus in Europe and America has shown that culling is ineffective in eradicating any outbreak. That is why vaccination is increasingly seen as an essential tool to prevent catastrophic outbreaks, such as that which occurred in South Africa in 2023.”
