MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay: nationwide avian influenza emergency declared

So far 366 birds have been culled

Paraguayan authorities Thursday decreed a nationwide animal sanitary emergency due to the spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, thus triggering the National Animal Health Emergency System (Sinaesa), it was announced in Asunción.

The declaration states that the emergency officially started on May 20 and will last for six months, it was explained by the National Animal Health Service (Senacsa), which implemented a series of measures in accordance with current regulations governing the matter, to safeguard public health and national poultry production, it was explained.

The sanitary entity also ruled out 84 suspicious cases nationwide and 366 birds were culled.

One of Senacsa's goals is to act in situations of relevant sanitary events, to avoid the introduction of exotic diseases, or to eliminate them as soon as possible, in case they are located in South American territory.

President Mario Abdo Benitez's decree also creates a team to keep the country free of other diseases of animal origin.

The first outbreak of avian influenza in Paraguay was detected on May 19 in the district of Mariscal Estigarribia, department of Boquerón, in the western region. Since then, four other outbreaks of the disease have been confirmed, all in the same department and in backyard poultry.