News:102

Included in this edition:
Purpose of World Ostrich Association
Animal Welfare – Slaughter Plant Monitoring
Costs of Purchasing Ostrich Eggs and Chicks
South Africa – Avian Influenza Update

Purpose of World Ostrich Association
The founders of the association recognised the need for an association that could provide a forum not only for those investing in the industry but of equal importance those wishing to purchase ostrich products.

An email received this month to the secretary was questioning why the association has not done more to promote the industry in their country. A trade association can only actively promote an industry when mandated to do so by the members and funded by the members to provide that promotion within any given area. Clearly significant funds are required for such promotions. With our industry as small as it is, such funding is not available.

The association is mandated to provide standards. Guideline standards enable our producers to determine if they are achieving commercially acceptable (and viable) standards and our customers can use as guide lines to assess the quality of the products when purchasing.

The WOA industry standards are generic standards that provide guidelines. Individual companies operating to best practice can set their standards even higher to differentiate themselves from the competition.

Another question asked by this writer was any information on the banning of ostrich production on the grounds of welfare and/or conservation. Some countries including India have been hesitant to licence the importation of ostrich on a commercial scale on welfare grounds. This concern is generally driven through lack of knowledge, but based on factual observations from the history of domesticated ostrich production in many areas, where poor practices have been implemented. The welfare issues relate to lack of knowledge and poor advice, rather than wilful intent or the ostrich unsuitability for commercial domestication. They are in fact a species that is well suited to domestication in many climates provided the management is of adequate standards.

Regarding conservation, Ostrich were under threat of extinction from over hunting until they were domesticated around 1820s onwards. Ostrich are not listed under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), so their products can be traded freely around the world subject to individual country’s veterinary health and trading regulations.

Animal Welfare – Slaughter Plant Monitoring
The welfare of the animals produced for their meat supplies remains an increasing concern for many consumers in developed markets. August saw this news item:

Iceland has now joined all the major British supermarkets and some of the smaller supermarkets in supporting Animal Aid’s call for them to insist on their meat suppliers having the cameras in their slaughterhouses. Currently this applies only to British based supermarkets, but there is every reason to believe it will be extended to any supplying slaughter plant, regardless of location.

Another program under development is driven by changes in EU regulations. The qualification (Certificate of Competence) must be developed in a manner that will ensure the requirements placed on Member States /Competent Authorities by EU Regulation 1099 / 2009 and, in particular Articles 7, 17, 21, 29 and Annex IV of that Regulation, are met. These requirements apply to all species of animals covered by Regulation 1099 / 2009 and apply to slaughter activities undertaken in a slaughterhouse and on farm. Ostrich fall under this legislation.

This is the establishing of basic standards for protocols for all species at slaughter. The BDOA (British Domesticated Ostrich Association) have taken part in the consultation process for setting their guide lines for ostrich. The completed protocols are due for publication in September. The requirements as they are specified are no more than any good slaughter plant would include in their daily routines and of course are only minimum requirements.

Whilst these certificates of competence are requirements for EU slaughter plants, they may well be enforced on suppliers of meat products produced outside the EU but supplying the EU, if not immediately, they could be requirements in time.

Purchasing Ostrich Eggs and Chicks
Over the years many of us have regularly received enquiries from newcomers to the industry to supply eggs and/or chicks. All too often the numbers requested are simply too small to be a viable proposition – not viable for either the seller or the buyer. There are a number of reasons for this, but fundamentally the reason is the additional costs encountered when supplying eggs or chicks across international borders.

When purchasing from within one’s own country, it is possible to go to another farm and purchase a few eggs or chicks. Depending on the country there may be some regulations regarding crossing county, state or provincial boundaries, but these are usually minimal by comparison to the regulations required for shipping across international borders.

Importing eggs or chicks from a foreign country requires strict veterinary protocols. These protocols usually include certain testing of the breeder birds and meeting quarantine regulations. These regulations can vary from country to country. Any handling of breeders is stressful for those birds and can impact on their breeding activity. Therefore ostrich farmers can only undertake such activity when there is sufficient volume involved supported by a contract for regular supply and guaranteed payment to justify that disruption and costs.

Local state veterinarian departments are unwilling to undertake the work when numbers of exports are significantly strong enough. Costs are simply too high when numbers are low. To put his statement into perspective, poultry production batches of chicks are usually measured in hundreds, but more frequently today in thousands. Increasing numbers of units have batches in excess of 10,000 chicks. The photos in Figure 1 illustrate the work required of a state veterinarian in the export process. As can be seen, this is a major operation. Each importing country has different criteria and different forms to complete.

With ostrich the minimum number of eggs a supplier is interested can be as low as 108 per shipment, but more usually 250 is the minimum and for many unless there is a longer term contract in place for regular deliveries, farms are not interested or able to supply.

The next issue to consider is that of the viability of the eggs. Eggs need to be handled carefully, maintained within certain temperature ranges and ideally incubated within 10 days of the date they were laid. For export they require specialist packaging (see illustration). During shipping you are dependent on the airline looking after the boxes correctly. If they have to undergo a change of plane en route or delays, airlines will not guarantee that the boxes may not spend time on the hot tarmac at the airport. When this happens the viability of the eggs can be destroyed and in the case of chicks the stress is far too great and the chicks succumb.

Finally, unless there are a large number of chicks in the new area, there is a problem of achieving adequate nutrition to support the growth and development of the chicks. In the domesticated situation the birds must have adequate nutrients and rations specifically designed for ostrich. It becomes exceedingly costly to produce this when working with only a limited number of birds. Unless fed correctly, ostrich are not a viable animal to introduce to commercial farming.

Many countries require specialist quarantine facilities when incubating and hatching imported eggs. For this reason it is simply not viable for any farmer in any country to import just a few eggs. These economics and practicalities of importing eggs also apply to importing day old chicks.

Therefore, when introducing ostrich to a new country it is essential that the project is:

Of a sufficient scale to support the full infrastructure.
Supported by a full business plan that ensures it covers the full production cycle (see newsletter 74, 75 ) and you understand that business plan
If specialising in just one sector (e.g. farming), is there a supply of food of proven standard for ostrich, is there someone to slaughter the birds? What are the contracts?
Is there sufficient cash for the project to be successful? (Figure 2 from News 100)

Figure 2 - Financial Cycle in Ostrich Production

South Africa – Avian Influenza Update
South Africa has submitted 2 updates to the OIE during August increasing the confirmed cases Avian Influenza in ostrich to 11,353 in 33 individual outbreaks. September is the month they typically start building up their slaughter numbers. With the outbreaks ongoing, it will be some months before they will be able to export. It is unlikely to be clear in time for the Christmas market.