Date: June 3, 2007
Namibia's Sealing Culling Industry Exports - Risks International Human Health
Seal Alert-SA : Press Release
June 3, 2007
Namibia's Sealing
Culling
Industry Exports -
Risks International Human Health
Baby
Cape fur seals recently clubbed to death and now being
processed
Less than
27-days to go before the start of Namibia's 2007 baby seal
cull.
In 2006 Seal Alert-SA warned
the Namibian Fisheries Minister of the health risks associated with
Seal Product Exports. His response reported in the media was, "If
culling seals is a problem, the solution is to eat them", later he
appealed to Namibians "to develop a taste for seal meat".
The first mass die-off of the Cape
fur seals occurred in 1988 (the largest marine mammal mass death
worldwide). It occurred again in 1994, to which in 2006, the seal
population had still not recovered to pre-1993 levels. It occurred
again in 1995, 1996, 2000, 2002 and just last year. Each time, one
third to one half of the seal population died.
Namibia did not stop its population
reduction (cull) or its international exports. It even increased
and doubled it baby pup quota.
During last year's cull on 85 000
pups, sealers half-way through sealing season which runs from July
1 to November 15, reported (in the Republican) having to stop and
bury up to 900 dead seal carcasses a day. Namibian Ministry agreed
to investigate the causes of the mass die-off's. Permanent
Secretary Mbako revealed that, "Pups were growing at less than 10%
of their normal weight. 50% were below a threshold of post weaning
survival mass of 11kg. The majority of pups will not survive post
weaning age". Ending with, "Studies are being conducted to
determine whether the die-offs are a consequence of any
pathological infection (viral or bacteriological) or not. If
evidence of any pathological induced infection is absent, we can
with certainty cast the reason for the mass mortality on
starvation".
Seal Alert-SA can now reveal that
Doctors Henton, Zapke and Basson, at the world renowned
Bacteriology Section, Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute in South
Africa, in 1999, concluded that, "Streptococcus
phocae infections associated with starvation in Cape fur seals at
Cape Cross (sealing) colony Namibia".
There are 35 known serotypes of
Streptococcus, according to Professor Gottschalk (a world expert)
and consultant to the World Health Organization. One such strain,
Streptococcus suis, occurred in an outbreak in slaughtered pigs in
China in 2005. Of the reported 215 pig to human cases, 66 were
laboratory confirmed, of these (61) 92% showed streptococcus toxic
shock syndrome, and of these 38 (62%) died.
Since this confirmation by Doctors at
Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute in 1999, Namibian sealers have
continued to export Cape fur seal products to 23 countries.
Professor Gottschalk has stated, "This raises
the level of concern for human infection because strep organisms
multiply very rapidly once an animal has died".
Prior to the new sealing regulations, where
63% of the weight of pups were discarded and 75% of the bulls, new
regulations require that the whole carcass be consumed or utilised.
Since the Streptococcus Phocae infection confirmation in 1999, over
500 000 individual (clubbed and culled) seals, comprising of
various body parts have been exported internationally. Six
countries in the Far East, with Europe the largest at fourteen, and
with South Africa importing the bulk of the carcasses mostly for
use in petfood and livestock feed.
Vomiting, deafness and meningitis are all
possible symptoms of this disease.
Its only a matter of time, that Francois
Hugo of Seal Alert-SA believes cases of seal to human deaths will
start occurring (if not already), considering the sealers
unhygienic seal processing factories and the long time it takes to
transport the culled (slaughtered and clubbed seal) from the seal
colonies to the seal factories many miles away, particularly in
desert heat conditions.
All I can say, is that you were warned,
Namibia.
For the Seals
Francois Hugo Seal Alert-SA