MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bird flu outbreak in Río Grande do Sul contained, says Brazilian minister

“If this outbreak in Montenegro had escaped to other regions of the country, we would have had other cases of mortality,” Fávaro argued

Brazil's Agriculture Minister, Carlos Fávaro, announced Tuesday during a public hearing at the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Agrarian Reform that the bird flu outbreak in Montenegro, Rio Grande do Sul, has been successfully contained. The country's health system quickly implemented measures, including inspections of 540 nearby rural establishments and setting up sanitary barriers.

“Although we are on the fifth working day after the total disinfection of the farm and 15 days since the outbreak appeared, I can assure you with great peace of mind that the outbreak in Montenegro has been contained,” said Fávaro. The minister stressed that the episode showed the effectiveness of the country's health system.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 540 rural establishments have been identified within a 10-kilometer radius of the affected farm, and all of them have already been inspected, and in addition to the outbreak farm, two more operate commercial poultry farming.

”The main point we have to highlight is the ability to block this outbreak. Seven sanitary barriers and measures to protect workers were set up immediately. Yesterday (Monday), 21 cases were under investigation, and ten have already been ruled out today. We had two farms and now only one is under investigation,“ he said.

The minister said that, in just over 20 days, Brazil should announce that the country is free of the disease. The deadline is due to sanitary issues.

”After 28 days of this period [of identification of the most recent case], which is an incubation period for the virus, we will once again announce that Brazil is free of bird flu, and the trend is very strong that this will happen in the next 23 days,“ he announced.

After the outbreak, 24 countries decided to suspend imports of meat and eggs from Brazil for health reasons. Of these, 13 decided to suspend purchases only of poultry and eggs produced in Rio Grande do Sul.

Fávaro said that with the announcement that the country has been cleared of the disease, exports should resume as normal. ”We're going to make progress on the renegotiation with all the countries that restricted purchases.“

The minister compared the case of Brazil, which slaughtered 17,000 birds after the outbreak was discovered, with cases of bird flu in the United States. There, two days before the flu was confirmed in Brazil, an outbreak of the disease caused the slaughter of 700,000 birds.

”If this outbreak in Montenegro had escaped to other regions of the country, we would have had other cases of mortality. New lethal cases could have appeared in 4 or 5 days, but this was not recorded. As there have been no [new cases] after 15 days, this shows the capacity of the Brazilian health control system and how it has worked,“ he explained.

”The bird flu virus has been circulating in the world for at least 30 years. There have been records on commercial farms for 19 years, and, in that time, Brazil has become the only major meat and egg producer in the world not to have the virus in its commercial farms, and that's no coincidence,” he said.

Avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, mainly affects birds, but has also been detected in mammals, including cattle. Transmission occurs through contact with sick birds and also through contaminated water and materials. The disease rarely affects humans, and the advice is for people to stay informed and adopt the recommended preventive measures. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, meat and eggs can be consumed safely, as long as they are prepared properly. (Source: Agencia Brasil)