FRANCOIS BAIRD: Compensation refusal encourages the spread of bird flu

Last year state veterinarians ordered the culling of millions of chickens to prevent the spread of bird flu. The resultant loss to poultry businesses across the country was R9bn. The government refused to pay a cent in compensation.

This approach has serious consequences — chicken farms shut down, jobs are lost and bird flu spreads because farmers, fearing no compensation, are inclined to try to hide infections. When bird flu breaks out on or near a poultry farm, state veterinarians order farmers to cull all chickens — infected or not. For now, culling is the primary means of preventing the spread of bird flu. It happens all over the world, except that other countries pay compensation and SA does not.

Other countries pay compensation for two reasons: first to help the farmers re-establish their businesses after they have lost their entire poultry flock; and second to encourage farmers to report bird flu outbreaks immediately, and thereby to help combat the virus.

When bird flu strikes the losses suffered by poultry farmers run into billions of rand. The SA poultry industry has estimated that the losses in 2023 — the worst outbreak in the country’s history — amounted to R9bn.

The refusal to compensate saw large producers go from profit to loss. Small producers went out of business. The industry estimates that hundreds, possibly thousands, of small-scale poultry farmers closed shop last year. This would have meant the loss of thousands of jobs. The lack of compensation would have been a major factor in the closure of these small businesses.

Poultry farming is a difficult and risky business at the best of times. In the worst of times, such as when farmers have to destroy all the chickens on their farm, they have no flock and no income. If they are going to try to stay in business they have to decontaminate their farm at their own expense. The hen houses have to stay empty for several months before they can be reused. Then new chicks must be bought, along with new stocks of feed, to start again from scratch.

Give up

For many, this has proved too much. They give up rather than face an uncertain and very expensive battle to get going again. That is why compensation is so important. It would enable small-scale farmers to restart their businesses and keep their employees in the jobs so that they can feed their families. Yet in SA’s poor rural areas the government is forcing small-scale poultry farmers to close shop and fire their workers. It’s heartless, and it doesn’t make sense.

When poultry farmers know they won’t be compensated for culled birds, they have no incentive to report a flu outbreak in their flocks. The temptation instead is to keep quiet, to delay for as long as possible so as to earn an income in the meantime. Or perhaps they hope that enough birds will survive to enable them to stay in business.

These delays keep infected birds alive and in contact with others, spreading the virus. Instead of a farm or production facility being quarantined, it stays in business, working with or perhaps even selling infected chickens. This is also a threat to food safety. The government know this, which is why the Animal Diseases Act requires that all chickens infected or in contact with bird flu must be isolated and destroyed.

The refusal to pay compensation runs counter to all these measures. It prevents or delays action against bird flu, and in so doing encourages the spread of the virus.

The lack of compensation adds hugely to poultry farmers’ costs. Last year Astral, SA’s largest poultry producer, reported the first financial loss in its history. The impact of bird flu, and the lack of compensation, were contributory factors.

When costs increase poultry operations that survive a bird flu outbreak have to recover those costs, in part through raising the price of the chickens they sell. The industry has for decades produced high-quality chicken at affordable prices. The refusal to pay compensation makes this even more difficult.

Despite the refusal to pay compensation, a policy document published by the government at the end of last year stated that farmers have a right to claim when they are ordered to cull their chickens. The policy document was about vaccination, but it also contained a lengthy section on compensation. It stated that a farmer whose chickens have been destroyed can apply for compensation to the national director of animal health at the department of agriculture, land reform & rural development.

The director must decide on “fair compensation” after considering a number of factors. The law is fair, but the problem comes in its application. Government officials have had two responses — first, that there is no money, and second that chickens that have been infected or in contact with bird flu cannot be sold and thus have no value. No value means no compensation. So bird flu spreads, farmers go out of business, jobs are lost and rural families starve.

In theory, vaccinations could end mass culling around the world, but there’s a long way to go. Vaccination against bird flu is a new process. France is the only country to have tried it at scale, and so far only on ducks. No country has yet vaccinated chickens in commercial operations.

In SA there are still a number of obstacles to overcome. We have approved vaccines against the H5 strain of the virus, but not yet for the unique H7 strain that devastated flocks in the northern provinces last year. Then there is the question of approvals. Farmers who want to vaccinate must apply for permission and the barriers to approval are high, ranging from the health measures they must implement to repeated and expensive testing after the vaccines have been applied. The industry has said the conditions are so onerous that few producers will be able to vaccinate.

Vaccination is far from being a universal solution. Until it is, culling is the only way to prevent the spread of the disease. And that means the issue of compensation is going to remain urgent and necessary.

• Baird is founder of the FairPlay movement.