Gauteng Smallholder Gauteng Smallholder August 2017 | Page 9

NEWS
Registration helps curb bird flu spread
A
newly-introduced
Poultry Disease
Management Agency
(PDMA) system of registration
of persons buying and selling
live chickens made it possible
to trace these culls is one of
the weapons being used by
the Dept of Agriculture,
Forestry & Fisheries (Daff) to
combat the outbreaks of fatal
H5N8 avian influenza (bird
F rom page 5
were.
She was paid from a levy on
all participating producers.
The telephone was dodgy in
those days; with cellphones
today such a system would be
quick and reliable.
All you need to do is get a list
of buyers of particular
commodities, and a list of
producers, and marry them
'flu) reported last edition.
Since then, two further
locations have reported
outbreaks, bringing the total
of affected properties to four.
The new locations involved
commercial layer chickens on
farms in Gauteng and
Mpumalanga.
The two farms were immedi-
ately placed under quarantine
by the State Veterinary
together.
Fruit farmer, retired
Stellenbosch
If you were doing this
successfully in the 60s and
70s there's no reason why
something similar wouldn't
work today, even on a small-
area scale, or commodity by
commodity.
It was, however, not the DFB
that booked the shipping
Service. The quarantine
includes, as a minimum, a
prohibition of the movement
of chickens and chicken
products on to and off the
farm. The necessary measures
have been taken to contain
and eliminate the disease as
efficiently as possible on both
farms.
In addition, forward tracing
was done and cull chicken
NETWORK
space, but the Perishable
Products Export Control
Board. (PPECB).
The DFB negotiated the
overall freight rate with the
shipping lines before the
season commenced . T he rate
agreed was based on an early
crop estimate and the
number of ships thus
required.
~ Editor
7
www.sasmallholder.co.za
depots were identified which
had received live cull
chickens from one of the
affected farms recently. The
records of these cull depots
are being followed up to
trace as many of these
chickens as possible.
Meanwhile, the PDMA
registration process of sellers
and traders of live chickens
has progressed well and a
number of initial challenges
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