March 7, 2006

Bird deaths in Brazil not due to bird flu

Recent bird deaths in Brazil are not linked to bird flu, an Agriculture Ministry veterinary official said Monday.

Rumours that the deadly strain of bird flu had found its way into Brazil or Argentina caused soy prices at the CBOT to fall Monday, but authorities in both countries said the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus is not to blame.

Commercial chicken producers are large consumers of soymeal, and as a result, softening demand from this sector can affect soy futures prices.

On Friday, nearly 100 birds died on a property on the Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo border. The cause of the death is still under investigation. Sao Paulo state authorities suspect rat poison was washed into a small lake, killing many birds and even some fish.

"The fact that fish died, too, is pretty solid evidence that this is not bird flu," said Jamil Gomes de Souza, a top veterinary official at Brazil's Agriculture Ministry.

"Fish do not die of any bird disease. We do not know what it was. It could be rat poison. We'll know in about a week after the lab tests are in," Souza said Monday.

Meanwhile, a report in Monday's Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper blamed the death of wild birds in Brasilia on a large building with mirror-like windows. According to the University of Brasilia, one bird dies every three days because of collision with the cylindrical seven-storey building that reflects the sky.

In Argentina, more than 500 wild birds, most of them ducks, were found dead in the Chubut province of Argentina on Monday, but officials there have ruled out that it was bird flu that killed them. Test results on what may have killed the birds are expected within a month.