Even though it is the largest exporter of chicken meat in the world, so far Brazil has not registered any cases of the disease and maintains active surveillance.
The decision to Argentina and Uruguay to declare a health emergency after the discovery of the first cases of bird flu raised this Wednesday, the 15th, the alert level in Latin America due to the advance of the disease, which started to affect humans in the last decades and which recently was also detected in some species of mammals. The situation in Argentina and Uruguay is far from isolated, since on Tuesday the 14th, the Guatemala had already declared a state of emergency after confirming the presence of the virus H5N1 in pelicans. “The confirmation of the entry of the virus into the country makes us more alert, but it does not surprise us”, admitted the Secretary of Agriculture of Argentina, Juan José Bahillo. A similar comment was made by the Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries of Uruguay, Fernando Mattos, who acknowledged that the detection of the first case and the arrival of the disease “is not a surprise”.
Alarms went off in Cuba last week, when cases of avian flu were detected in the National Zoo of Havana, which is why the enclosure was declared in quarantine. At Costa Rica, the first outbreak of avian flu was detected on January 23 in pelicans in the province of Limón (Caribbean) and later other infections were identified in wild birds in that same province and in a farm in the city of Parrita (Pacific). O Panama maintains a health alert since December 24, valid for 90 days, after confirmation of the first case of avian flu. Since then, three cases have been registered and more than 2,500 birds have been culled. At Venezuela, the presence of avian flu was also detected in pelicans in December, which is why the authorities declared a state of health alert in five coastal states “for a period of 90 days”, which expires at the end of this month. The first cases in Peru were detected in late November also in pelicans. Days later, the contagion passed to corral poultry, which led the Ministry of Health to issue an epidemiological alert. Since then, at least 55,000 birds have died and the focus is now on the nearly 600 sea lions and one dolphin that have died from the virus. In turn, the authorities of the Chile confirmed more than 10,000 dead birds presumably due to avian flu.
O Brazil, so far, has not registered any case, but given the threat of arriving from neighboring countries where it has already been registered, the Ministry of Agriculture has been promoting a campaign to reinforce prevention measures. World leader in chicken meat exports, with 35% of the market, Brazil also promotes the maintenance of surveillance efforts and biosecurity measures on farms, in order to avoid direct and indirect contact between domestic and wild birds, especially migratory ones. aquatic.
*With information from EFE