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Brazil agriculture minister: signs show efficient control of bird flu outbreak
By Lisandra Paraguassu - 6/4/2025
By Lisandra Paraguassu
BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazil's Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro said on Wednesday there were strong indications that the world's biggest chicken exporter had efficiently contained a bird flu outbreak which was reported on a commercial chicken farm in mid-May.
Brazil's first-ever case of the highly pathogenic avian influenza was reported on a commercial farm in Rio Grande do Sul state, prompting dozens of trade partners to place countrywide and regional level trade bans on Brazilian poultry exports.
Countries including China, South Korea and the European Union were in talks with Brazil to ease their bans, Favaro told reporters in Brasilia, adding that some partners were expected to relax restrictions before the 28-day observation period is up later this month, provided no other commercial-farm outbreaks occur.
On May 30 China, the biggest importer of Brazilian poultry, announced a country-wide ban on chicken produced in Brazil, even though the Brazilian government had sought a more lenient, regional restriction.
Since the outbreak on the commercial farm, chicken prices in Brazil have fallen around 7%, Favaro said, adding the decline was normal and not alarming and that almost three quarters of Brazil's chicken production was now being consumed domestically.
The country has processed over 4,000 tests and has so far confirmed 171 outbreaks of bird flu in the last two years, most of which were found in wild birds.
Brazil is currently investigating nine suspect bird flu cases nationwide, including another case on a commercial farm which is also located in Rio Grande do Sul.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; additional reporting by Ana Mano and Isabel Teles in São PauloWriting by Oliver GriffinEditing by Brad Haynes, Bernadette Baum and Franklin Paul)