South Africa has culled nearly 2.5 million chickens in an effort to contain dozens of outbreaks of two distinct strains of avian influenza, which have threatened to create a shortage of eggs for consumers and are wreaking havoc on an industry already struggling due to an electricity outage, the government announced on Tuesday.
Another 205,000 hens have perished from bird flu in at least 60 distinct outbreaks throughout the nation, with more than half of those outbreaks occurring in Gauteng province, which contains Johannesburg, the country’s largest metropolis, and Pretoria, the capital.
South African chicken meat and eggs have been prohibited in Namibia.
According to Wilhelm Mare, head of the South African Veterinary Association’s poultry group, 8.5 million egg-laying birds and another 2.5 million chickens employed in the meat production industry might be impacted.
Eggs are an essential and inexpensive source of protein in South Africa, but prices have climbed gradually this year, and shortages caused by avian flu were likely to force costs up again, contributing to South Africans’ high food inflation.
South Africa’s chicken sector has already been seriously hurt this year by power shortages, which have resulted in frequent power outages to conserve energy, negatively impacting companies.
South African farmers stated in January that they had been forced to slaughter roughly 10 million baby chicks due to record blackouts at the start of the year, forcing output to halt considerably and congestion on poultry farms.
