Agriculture Minister Senzeni Zokwana has met with CEOs and senior managers in the poultry industry in a closed meeting to find solutions and discuss mitigation strategies to the current Avian Influenza outbreak.
In a statement, the department said the current outbreak was threatening the existence of South African Poultry industry as well as jobs in the sector.
The industry raised concerns on compensation and guidelines relating to the principles and guidelines of compensating affected farms. Another area of concern was vaccination of poultry against Avian Influenza. Industry also requested to be given permission to import fertile eggs to close the gap as a result of culled birds.
On the issue of vaccination, the meeting agreed that the decision should be based on scientific research for the long term benefit of the sector and the country.
The meeting agreed to set up a task team consisting of representatives from industry and Government to work on scientifically based considerations regarding vaccination.
The Department committed to providing guidelines on compensation while committing to consider the request of importing hatching eggs considering the necessary level of protection desired to protect the national population by end of the week.
