PARIS (Reuters) – Brazil does not support vaccination as a way to control bird flu because it would inevitably lead to trade barriers, a high-ranking official said on Monday.
The world’s biggest poultry exporter on Monday confirmed five cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), commonly called bird flu, in wild birds, including one in Rio de Janeiro state, but not in commercial flocks.
“Currently, Brazil is free of HPAI. If our epidemiological situation changes and we eventually decide to vaccinate (…) we have a strong feeling that we will be subject to some trade barriers,” Brazil said Eduardo Cunha, representative of the World Organization for Animal Health in Paris at a general session.
If bird flu infects commercial flocks in Brazil, about $10 billion worth of chicken exports will be at risk, which have assumed an increasing role in the world’s poultry and egg supply as importers import chicken meat, chicken and turkey from countries with the virus. ban on.
The severity of the current bird flu outbreak has prompted some governments to reconsider vaccinating poultry, but other nations such as the United States are reluctant, mainly because of the trade restrictions this would require.
Brazil exports poultry and poultry products to more than 130 countries, which will make negotiating with these importers to accept their vaccinated products “a huge challenge,” said Cunha, who heads the department of animal health at the Brazilian ministry of agriculture and agriculture. He is also a director. livestock.
