Mexico City, November 4.- Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) AH5N1 has spread to seven states in the country, prompting the National Service of Health, Safety and Agrifood Quality (Senasica) to implement counter-epidemic measures to protect national poultry production.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader) reported that three of the eight outbreaks identified have affected three high-tech poultry production units (UPA), two in the state of Sonora and one in Nuevo León, where 296,000 affected birds were found.
The states where the virus has been detected are: State of Mexico, Nuevo León, Chiapas, Sonora, Baja California, Jalisco, and Aguascalientes.
Following these findings at the commercial UPAs, Senasica also ordered an internal quarantine in both states, which means farms located in the aforementioned states cannot transport poultry products without permission from the federal health authority.
DGSA
Technicians from the General Directorate of Animal Health (DGSA) established the corresponding quarantine on the affected commercial farms and implemented the indicated sanitary measures.
The UPAs were subsequently depopulated, cleaned, and disinfected to begin the sanitary clearance period and subsequently introduce sentinel birds, with the aim of verifying the absence of the virus before restarting production processes.
For UPAs to be authorized to move and market their products, they must demonstrate, through testing conducted in official laboratories, that the products are free of AIAP AH5N1.
The Mexico-United States Commission for the Prevention of Foot-and-Mouth Disease and Other Exotic Animal Diseases (CPA) of Senasica reported that in all cases it applied the corresponding anti-epidemic measures, which include tracking the virus within a 15-kilometer radius of the findings.
