Thousands of dead or euthanized birds, hundreds of farms in quarantine and exports cancelled is the provisional balance sheet of the Bird flu is spreading in Latin Americaas authorities redouble their efforts to mitigate its effects.

Since the first cases were reported in October 2022, numerous countries have discovered diseased animalsincluding Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina.

So far Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Paraguay They are on the short list of countries with no reported cases, but remain under animal health alert and extreme surveillance.

The disease entered the region via migratory birds and has spread inexorably from north to south and west to east. The outbreak killed wild birds as well as sea lions and spread to backyard birds (for family consumption) and poultry.

About 400,000 birds have been vaccinated against bird flu, according to the egg producers’ union

canceled output

It is the first time in Argentina that bird flu cases have occurred in backyard and commercial birds”, explained to AFP Víctor Manuel Baldovino Prina, director of the southern regional center of the province of Buenos Aires of the National Service of Food Health and Quality (Senasa).

Since the first case was reported on a farm in early March, Argentina has suspended exports of poultry products, albeit with no impact on the domestic market, as the disease is not transmitted to humans through the consumption of chicken meat or eggs.

About 240,000 chickens died or were slaughtered on Argentine farms.

“Migratory birds are the ones that bring this type of virus through two currents, one Atlantic and the other from the Pacific,” the expert explains.

In Argentina, there are no approved vaccines against this disease, but health authorities and business chamber representatives “are working with laboratories to have vaccines in the short term,” Prina said.

Slaughter and vaccinate

Mexico reported its first case on Oct. 14 and has since confirmed outbreaks in 12 of the country’s 32 states. where quarantines have been issued and vaccines are being applied to stop the spread of the disease, which has a major impact on poultry production.

Outbreaks had been confirmed at 50 farms in the country through early February, where 5.9 million birds were infected, equivalent to nearly 0.3% of the national inventory, the Agriculture Ministry reported.

Ecuador it has been under alarm since November 27 last year when it discovered the virus in poultry and backyards. Authorities even reported the infection of a nine-year-old girl in Bolívar province. Some 35 farms are part of the first phase of vaccination, with more than 750,000 animals reached in Ecuador. Eradication measures include the slaughter of nearly 300,000 animals.

Peru declared a six-month health alert in November. The outbreak affects not only birds but also sea lions. On March 6, Peruvian authorities reported that the flu could have killed 3,487 sea lions in protected areas. Between November 2022 and March this year, 63,000 birds were also killed by bird flu.

With 662,850 birds vaccinated, the first eight days of vaccination against avian flu have come to an end

Although Peru has not reported any cases of infected people, authorities have urged the population to “avoid any contact with sea lions and seabirds”. “We suspect that the species transmitting this virus is the Franklin gull,” which migrates from the north of the continent, Peru’s National Agricultural Health Service warned.

Panama sacrificed some 1,500 poultry and banned the movement of backyard specimens, fertilized eggs and ornamental birds for 90 days.

Chile reported the first case in poultry this week in a breeding center with 40,000 birds in Rancagua (south). It had already detected the virus in wild birds, sea lions and otters in the regions of Arica (on the border with Peru) and Los Lagos (1000 km south of Santiago).

Venezuela only detected cases in wild birdsHowever, it banned the transfer of all types of live birds and fertilized eggs.

Cuba reported cases in wild birds at a zoo in Havana on February 7.or, after which he ordered the closure of the place and a preventive quarantine, with no other suspicious cases reported on the island.

Honduras declared a state of emergency on Feb. 15 after capturing some 300 dead pelicans on Caribbean beaches. Guatemala also discovered pelicans dead from the disease in coastal villages.

UruguayMeanwhile, it has declared a health emergency across the country due to the discovery of dead black-necked swans infected with the virus in lagoons in the eastern part of the country. While suspending bird sales fairs, the government limited commercial bird mobility only to birds covered by the national poultry tracking system.

Paraguayan, of the countries free of the disease, considers its arrival inevitable. “We are really very concerned, the risk of their entry is imminent,” José Martín, president of Paraguay’s National Animal Health and Quality Service, told the press.

“It is a reality that we have to make it in the region,” he added.