Bird flu shake-up as government ends mass culling approach

Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen announces a major policy shift allowing the use of vaccination to combat highly pathogenic avian influenza.

South Africa’s poultry industry is set for a major regulatory shift after Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen moved to amend the country’s animal disease framework to allow the use of vaccinations against highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), in what government describes as a break from an “outdated” disease control model.

The Ministry of Agriculture confirmed that Steenhuisen has intervened by amending the Animal Diseases Regulations (R.2026 of 1986), paving the way for the introduction of HPAI vaccinations as part of a broader disease control strategy aimed at protecting poultry producers from repeated outbreaks and large-scale losses.

The decision follows a formal objection by the South African Poultry Association (SAPA), which cited what it described as a breakdown in the department’s Directorate: Animal Health and a lack of practical or affordable responses to recurring bird flu outbreaks.

SAPA argued that producers had been left “stuck in an outdated system that forced the mass culling of birds, leaving them without any modern legal tools to protect their flocks.”