Zimbabwe bans chicken products from South Africa
Zimbabwe has suspended all trade in birds and chicken products from South Africa after outbreak of the deadly H5N8 bird flu was confirmed at a farm in Free State Province on Friday night.
On Thursday last week the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) stated on its website a reported case of avian flu on a commercial poultry farm in Mpumalanga Province. According to a report by South African agricultural authorities, at least 5000 birds died while the remaining 24000-birds at the farm were in the process of being de-populated.
Following this outbreak, Zimbabwe has temporarily banned poultry products from the country to prevent the virus from spreading into the country and repeating a process that led to the killing of 142 000 chickens at a farm in Harare. South Africa becomes the third African country to be affected by avian flu virus after Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.