Authorities predict new bird flu crisis in 2024

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean has called on countries in the region to maintain a state of alert and cooperate with notification systems to better respond to the impact of new avian influenza. The flu season is considered an “unprecedented situation” due to its evolution.

In the framework of the third regional meeting to respond to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) emergencies, held this Thursday in Santiago, Chile, the impact of the virus in 2024 is expected to be equal to or greater than last year, when 12.5 million birds were die or must be culled to contain the disease.

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The new migration season of birds from the north to the south of the continent is likely to maintain similar behavior to the last one, according to FAO analysis.

In the United States, for example, nearly 100 new outbreaks have been recorded in the past 30 days, while in the Mexican state of Sonora, a resurgence of the H5N1 virus has been recorded since October.

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Although highly pathogenic avian influenza has not had a direct impact on human health due to the consumption of poultry meat or eggs, it does cause problems for livestock farmers in the region, considering that 20.4% of influenza cases are produced in the region . and 10% of the world’s eggs.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the official veterinary services of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama, Peru and Venezuela, as well as senior representatives of the World Organization for Animal Health and the Pan American Organization for Animal Health. The WHO requested FAO to provide technical and logistical support to curb the spread of the disease on the African continent.

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“It has been a year of heavy workload due to the emergency, but it has also been a year of learning and collaboration. The countries of the group have responded to FAO’s call to deal with it as a regional disease.

Thanks to transparent and active cooperation and real data, we have been able to propose measures that benefit the entire region, developing a roadmap that keeps the risks of introduction and spread to controlled levels. ” and Biodiversity at the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean.

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