There's no reason to worry about contracting bird flu from consuming local poultry products.

The South African Poultry Association (Sapa) has assured consumers that properly cooked, locally produced eggs and chicken pose no risk to public health, despite the avian flu outbreak.

In a statement jointly issued on Monday by Sapa's Dr Abongile Balarane and Monique Piderit, a dietitian, the association said all affected farms had immediately been placed under quarantine, which meant no live chickens or eggs were allowed to be removed from the farms. The Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal were affected by the H5N1 strain of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus, and the Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North West by the H7N6 strain.

"Chickens infected with HPAI get sick fairly quickly and die. Generally, the first signs of sick animals include a drop in production, meaning that sick chickens will produce very few (if any) eggs. This, together with the added mitigation of placing farms under quarantine, means no eggs from these infected farms will make their way to the shelves."

Producers are required to destroy the carcasses and feed during the culling process.

Heat effectively destroys this virus, Balarane and Piderit said, adding that there have been no reported cases of the spread of this virus...