Fake news spreads to mislead people into believing that the bird flu outbreak is a threat to human health.
It’s not good news, but it is less-worse news… consumer food inflation is still high, but it is gradually coming down. The latest Household Affordability Index shows that food inflation is 9%, down from historic highs of 14%, 702 also reports this. The problems are systemic and fundamental – load shedding and infrastructure collapse.
So there will be a correction, but it will be slow. The infrastructure challenges in South Africa right now are bad news for poultry production. Not only will local producers battle to meet the demand and keep chicken affordable, BusinessLive details how exports would be completely out of the question.
Birdflu No Threat to Human Health
This resulted in the distribution of fake news that the outbreak was a threat human health as Moneyweb and Daily Maverick explain. In related news, Farmers Weekly announces that the shortages of poultry and eggs were not attributable to bird flu but rather loadshedding. The threat of bird flu came very close to Brazil, with cases identified in wild birds.
Fortunately for the country which is the world’s largest exporter, their domestic flocks remained unaffected, Reuters announced. As most experts agreed, a bird flu epidemic in Brazil would have catastrophic consequences globally.
But this new strain of bird flu is concerning scientists, and it might be attributable to climate change: On a positive note, nature.com announces the US is experimenting with a bird flu vaccination, which is also being eagerly investigated by the Brazilian industry.
