March 24, 2006

Mexican official denies rumour of bird flu case

Mexico's Agriculture Ministry denied that a case of high-pathogenic bird flu had been found in a town on the US border.

"Mexico is totally free of bird flu," Jose Angel del Valle, head of animal health at the Agriculture Ministry, said in a telephone interview Thursday (Mar 23).

Del Valle said the Mexican government has a permanent programme in place to monitor for disease at all of the country's poultry farms. Strict measures are also taken to inspect imports, the official added.

He said Mexico produces around six million chickens a day to meet domestic and export demand.

As reported, a purported news item posted on the website radiolivre.org said there had been a case of H5 bird flu in a duck found dead in the town of Nogales, on the US border.

The US Department of Agriculture said earlier Thursday that the report was a complete hoax. The rumour affected Chicago Board of Trade grain prices overnight.

Last year, Mexico reported several isolated cases of low-pathogenic bird flu, which does not affect humans. The most recent case was in the southern state of Chiapas, near the Guatemalan border.