By Ana Mano and Sybille de La Hamaide
SAO PAULO/PARIS (Reuters) -Preliminary tests indicate a commercial chicken farm in Brazil’s state of Tocantins is free from bird flu, the state’s farm agency said on Wednesday, a reassuring result following confirmation of Brazil’s first such outbreak.
The initial test results are a boon to the world’s top chicken exporter, which is reeling from regional and countrywide trade embargoes after bird flu was found on a commercial farm in the country’s southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul.
On Wednesday, meat lobby ABPA, which represents global food processors including JBS SA and BRF SA, requested the government’s permission to expand use of cold storage capacity at ports as a way to mitigate the impact of the current trade disruptions.
A chicken farm in Tocantins state and another in Santa Catarina state reported suspect bird flu contamination after confirmation of that first outbreak last Friday. Both remain listed as “under investigation” on the Agriculture Ministry’s website.
“Even with this reassuring initial result, the agriculture ministry continues to carry out additional tests,” said Adapec, as the Tocantins farm agency is known.
Santa Catarina did not reply to requests for comment.
The World Organisation for Animal Health on Wednesday encouraged the use of zoning, a method focusing disease controls on affected regions rather than the entire country, to contain the spread of bird flu in Brazil and enable international trade.
Under WOAH rules, if a country detects a bird flu outbreak in one region, it can declare that region a disease control zone and maintain disease-free status – and trade – from other zones that are unaffected.
Adapec said authorities started the investigation on a local commercial chicken farm after seven animals, out of about 40,000, presented “torticollis” symptoms, the statement said.
The agency said samples were taken from the animals and sent to a federal laboratory in Sao Paulo state immediately.
The Tocantins tests have indicated low pathogenicity, or mild, influenza A. The samples tested negative for highly pathogenic avian influenza – the type of bird flu that had been spreading across U.S. dairy and poultry farms – and for Newcastle Disease, which are the most worrying diseases in birds, local authorities said.
Zoning was used by the United States after it discovered bird flu outbreaks on farms, with countries like Canada, Mexico and the European Union permitting imports from disease-free regions within the U.S.
“This is particularly relevant because Brazil is a huge country. As long as a country can guarantee that it is complying with the rules, what is happening on one side of the country may have no impact on the other side,” WOAH Director General Emmanuelle Soubeyran told Reuters in an interview.
(Reporting by Ana Mano in Sao Paulo and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
