All-clear not yet declared for Avian flu outbreak

Black Immigrant Daily News

The content originally appeared on: Amandala Newspaper

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Oct. 20, 2022

The Belize Agricultural Health Authority (BAHA) has not officially declared the end of the Avian flu outbreak that was confirmed to have been detected in Belize over a month ago. Since early September, government ministries have been monitoring an outbreak of Avian Influenza on poultry farms in Shipyard and Blue Creek in northern Belize. A Cabinet release recently confirmed, however, that—in the wake of a depopulation exercise that involved the killing of tens of thousands of chickens—the results of all the tests conducted by BAHA and sent to United States labs for detection of the virus have been negative.

The manager of the Belize Poultry Association, Armando Cowo, confirmed in an interview yesterday, however, that an all-clear has still not been declared in Belize, since some samples are still abroad being tested. As a result, they are not yet able to assess the losses caused by this recent outbreak of Avian Influenza in Belize.

“We don’t have an update on the losses, because we have not done that, because we are waiting until the event is closed by BAHA; it needs to be officially closed. Although the Minister of Agriculture went to Cabinet and told them that it is all contained and so on, we need to have the event closed by BAHA, legally closed,” Cowo said.

It is to be noted that at this time, SI 128 is still in effect, and until it is repealed, losses in the poultry industry caused by the outbreak cannot be definitively determined.

While he confirmed that we are seeing the end of the outbreak, since all the results of overseas testing that have so far been returned have been negative, there is one more batch that has not been returned to BAHA yet. “At the moment most of the restrictions has been lifted, and the industry is operating almost normally,” Cowo said.

He confirmed that there are no potential shortages of poultry products at this time, nor are any foreseen in the short term.

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