December 1, 2022

Bird flu detected at poultry farm in Ecuador

Ecuador's Agriculture and Livestock Ministry has confirmed an outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm in the Andean province of Cotopaxi, Merco Press reported.

The country's Agency for Regulation and Phytosanitary and Zoosanitary Control (Agrocalidad) has imposed movement restrictions, also in response to alerts in Colombia, Peru, and Mexico regarding positive cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

In order to activate the National Avian Influenza Contingency Plan protocols, 24 samples from the affected production unit were taken and placed under state supervision.

Patricio Almeida, executive director of Agrocalidad, said these protocols call for quarantining, monitoring, and sampling the local poultry population that is susceptible to infection, to see if there could be other potential contagions.

The official also noted that the affected poultry population is under controlgeographically and does not exceed 0.15% of the nation's total poultry population.

Additionally, the authorities said that human consumption of chicken meat and eggs is not affected.

Ecuador's poultry industry has 1,810 poultry farms and generates US$1.8 billion, or 23% of the agricultural GDP and employs 300,000 workers. 3 billion eggs and 500,000 tonnes of chicken are produced annually.

-      Merco Press