An outbreak of bird flu has killed 6,000 ostriches in the past three weeks, leading authorities to ban all poultry exports from South Africa, agriculture officials said Monday.
Authorities have identified the strain of avian influenza as H5N2, regarded as less dangerous than the H5N1 variety, which ravaged chicken farms across Asia and crossed over to humans earlier this year, killing 24 people in Thailand and Vietnam.
The South African outbreak poses little risk to humans, but authorities still were trying to identify the source, said Dr. Johann van Wyk, head of animal health at the Department of Agriculture and Land.
The country produces 70 percent of the world’s ostrich meat. But the main source of ostrich revenue is from the skin, which is used to make leather goods.
