January 24, 2008

Brazil to start bird flu plan at ports on January 25

Brazil's health officials will start to roll out an emergency national plan against bird flu on January 25 at the northern port of Belem in Para state, the Estado newswire reported Wednesday.

The first phase will cover Brazil's 10 largest ports, while the second phase will cover the remaining dozen key ports from March onwards, Estado stated.

Antonio Mauricio Ferreira Netto, director of port revitalization and modernization at the Special Secretariat for Ports, said that they are finalizing preparations for the first 10 ports in the programme to improve the terminals so that there is no possibility that passengers can bring some type of bird flu.

The first phase will cover the ports of Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande, Vitoria, Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza, Sao Francisco do Sul, Paranagua and Belem.

Brazil has never had a case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus. However, being the world's leading chicken exporter, any problems with viral infections such as bird flu can disrupt the country's massive agribusiness market.

The country invested BRL20 million (US$11 million) last year to undertake inspections of passengers, baggage and shipping crew for bird flu.

Outbreaks of bird flu in Europe, Asia and North Africa caused millions of dollars in revenue losses to Brazil's main chicken companies, including Sadia SA (SDA) and Perdigao (PDA).

Brazil's fresh chicken exports rose 21 percent in 2007 to 3.3 million tonnes, according to the Brazilian Chicken Exporters Association, ABEF.