Maputo — Morrumbene district, in the southern Mozambican province of Inhambane, has slaughtered 35,000 laying hens as result of an outbreak of avian influenza (bird flu).
The disease is believed to have been recently imported from the South African province of North West.
According to the National Director of Livestock Development, Américo Coinceição, cited in Thursday's issue of the Maputo daily "Notícias', the Ministry of Agriculture has sent a team to continue investigating the situation in Morrumbene.
"All the provinces have been informed to alert the authorities immediately about any symptom of avian influenza or death of animals, especially wild and domestic birds', Coinceição said.
In order to avoid bird flu infections, the National Livestock Development Directorate recommends that producers should only introduce birds into their aviaries after carrying out an inspection or even submitting the animals to a two week period of quarantine.
As a result of the bird flu outbreak, all imports of chickens and other poultry products from South Africa have been suspended. This means that the country, especially the cities of Maputo and Matola, is facing a shortage of eggs and chickens. Due to this situation, the vendors are resorting to Eswatini to import eggs and chickens.
Avian influenza outbreaks - caused by virus H5N8, H5N1, H5N2 and H7 - have so far been detected in the South African provinces of North West, Western Cape, Mpumalanga, Free State, Kwazulu Natal and Eastern Cape.
