Brazil confirms over 100 cases of bird flu in domestic farming

The Brazilian Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday confirmed another outbreak of avian influenza (also known as bird flu), this time among domestic animals on a farm in the center-western state of Mato Grosso do Sul. 

This is the third outbreak of the disease detected in domestic farms this year, although no commercial plant has been affected by bird flu yet — which keeps Brazil’s status as a poultry-exporting country unaltered. However, the rise in domestic cases is a cause of concern. 

The Agriculture Ministry’s avian influenza dashboard points to 105 records of the disease so far in Brazil, 102 from wild birds and three from subsistence or domestic birds.

In May, authorities declared a 180-day state of animal health emergency when Brazil confirmed its first bird flu infections. The official veterinary service — a joint body with members of the ministry, state sanitary agencies, and industry representatives — confirmed there were no industrial poultry establishments in the epidemiological risk zones around these identified outbreaks.

The current bird flu outbreak has already spread to at least 17 countries in the Americas, according to the Pan-American Health Organization. Poultry farms in several countries have been affected, resulting in the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of birds and a weeks-long suspension of exports in Argentina.

As the world’s largest poultry exporter, Brazil had record poultry exports in 2022 — 4.8 million tons, worth USD 9.7 billion — partly due to the impact of bird flu in other countries. In 2021, the most recent data available from the Observatory of Economic Complexity, Brazil accounted for 25 percent of global poultry exports.

ABPA, the Brazilian Animal Protein Association, maintains that there is currently no risk of an outbreak in commercial poultry farms.

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