Quantum Foods adapts strategy amid high risk of avian influenze outbreak in South Africa

QUANTUM Foods said the risk of a Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAÍ) outbreak in South Africa is high, given outbreaks in many other parts of the world, and the group has adapted its strategy to lessen its risk to the disease.

- EDWARD WEST

The JSE-listed diversified feed, poultry, and egg business operating in South Africa, Zambia, Uganda, and Mozambique said on Friday it is placing less of its layer hens in areas that have a higher risk of HPAI, and is sourcing hatching eggs from geographically diverse breeder farms due to the escalating risks of an HPAI outbreak.

"The risk of an HPAI outbreak is regarded as very high for the remainder of the 2025 financial year, with an increased number of outbreaks reported in recent months in the US, Europe, North Africa, and West Africa," CEO Adel van der Merwe and chairman Andre Hanekom said in the interim results for the six months to March 31, which were released on Friday.

The directors said that stringent protocols for voluntary vaccination against HPAI that have been published by the South African government are prohibitive and, to the best of their knowledge, no producers have been successful in their applications to vaccinate poultry.

"In the absence of vaccination, HPAI will remain a key risk factor that will continue to affect poultry businesses going forward, resulting in major uncertainty for the poultry industry, which could severely impact earnings," Van der Merwe and Hanekom said.