☣️ Free from bird flu

ANIMAL HEALTH

How Brazil prevented its bird flu outbreak from becoming a catastrophe

The World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) has declared Brazil’s first outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a commercial poultry farm resolved, after the government reported last Wednesday it had successfully contained the virus spread.

The announcement marked the conclusion of a 28-day sanitary void period required by the WOAH, following the completion of disinfection protocols at the site of the outbreak in Montenegro, a city in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. No new cases have been identified in commercial production since then.

The Agriculture Ministry is now notifying countries that had suspended imports in a bid to resume exports in the coming weeks. Brazil is the world’s largest poultry exporter and, for years, it remained among the few major producers free of H5N1 outbreaks in commercial flocks — despite reporting multiple infections among wild birds since 2023.

According to official figures, Brazil has confirmed 175 outbreaks since 2023, nearly all in wild birds. A few cases have also been detected in backyard poultry operations.

For comparison, in North America alone, more than 174.8 million birds have been affected since early 2022, with the virus also spreading to dairy cows and infecting dozens of humans.

In the United States, experts have attributed the extent of the outbreak to a slow and inconsistent response by federal authorities. The nonprofit organization Farm Forward argues that federal bailouts offered to producers with repeated outbreaks may have disincentivized investments in costly biosecurity practices…

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