South Africa's Western Cape Province banned the movement of ostriches from the neighboring Eastern Cape on Wednesday after suspected cases of bird flu were reported in three farms.

The road controls in the Karoo and Oudtshoorn areas had been put in place to protect the ostrich export sector in the Western Cape, said the province's agriculture chief Cobus Dowry.

"As the disease could pose a serious threat to the export of ostrich meat from the Ostrich Exports Abattoirs in the Western Cape, we have requested the Eastern Cape not to send birds for slaughtering to the Western Cape, until we have more clarity on the infection," Dowry was quoted as saying by the South African Press Association.

Local authorities worried that the European Union would revoke the Western Cape's export status if the disease were to spread.

Preliminary samples taken from the three farms and analyzed at the Western Cape Veterinarian Laboratories indicate possible casesof Avian Influenza, better known as bird flu.

However, Dowry said further tests would be done to confirm the diagnosis, and a much clearer picture of the type of virus concerned as well as the extent of the infections in the Western Cape should come out by the end of the week.

Outbreaks of bird flu in Southeast Asia early this year had heavily hit the region's poultry export industry.

Source: Xinhua