Western Cape Relieved after the Lifting of Ban on the Export of Ostriches and Poultry

The Commission of the European Union Communities has reversed the decision to ban South African ostrich and poultry products from entering the European Communities due to the outbreak of the avian influenza in ostriches in 2004.

The reversal of the decision came after the Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs Ms Thoko Didiza declared South Africa free from highly pathogenic avian influenza on 13 September 2005. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) accepted and recognized the declaration by Minister Didiza. I accompanied the minister on a visit to the E U during May 2005 in order to address the issue.

South Africa has submitted a final report on the animal health situation and the actions taken to contain the disease to the Commission with the request to amend the decision accordingly. The report shows clearly that the outbreak in the Republic has been successfully contained in accordance with the requirements of the OIE.

The measures provided in this decision are in accordance with the requirements of the OIE and was recognized and accepted by the Standing Committee on The Food Chain and Animal Health of the European Commission. This means that South Africa is now once again free to export poultry and ostrich products to all the EU countries as soon as this decision is officially published by the European Commission.

For Agriculture in the Western Cape the lifting of the ban on the export of ostriches and products is an important step and appreciation must be expressed to the national Minister, Mrs Thoko Didiza. This is a huge step in normalising the day-to-day activities of ostrich farmers and will contribute to stabilise the ostrich industry as a whole. The industry suffered great losses since the ban was imposed. It is estimated that approximately 4000 jobs were affected and a total loss of R600 million was suffered by the industry.

I need to mention the excellent working relationship between the ostrich industry in the province, the South African Ostrich Business Chamber and the Department of Agriculture during the last couple of months. Very important lessons have been learned in this process in applying strict bio-security measures to prevent the introduction and spread of the disease. It would therefore be in the interest of the industry to jealously guard over the protection and health of their flocks to uphold our export status, just as they have done during the last 13 months.

Although we are grateful that we never had any clinical outbreaks or fatalities of ostriches in the Western Cape due to Avian Influenza we fully cooperated and supported the request of the national Minister of Agriculture in obtaining essential data through the continuous testing and retesting of all ostrich farms in the province to confirm the successful control of the disease to our foreign trade partners.

As the responsible Minister I must express sincere appreciation to the provincial Department of Agriculture and its officials who played vital roles in restricting the spread of the disease. The veterinary officials were almost fulltime involved in collecting thousands of samples, the testing thereof and the execution of control measures to curb the spread since July 2004 when the disease was identified in the Eastern Cape.

In particular our appreciation to the invaluable cooperation from the ostrich owners who sacrificed in a variety of ways by making their animals available for testing and to comply with the movement restrictions which had to be enforced to protect their flocks. We trust that the ostrich industry will now be able to return to normal in the Province and wish everyone every success as we continue to work together to maintain our disease free status.