CAMPINAS, Brazil, May 17 - Brazil is taking extra precautions to protect the world's largest poultry export industry from a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus that wasNearly $10 billion of chicken exports would be at risk if H5N1 bird flu infects commercial flocks in Brazil, which has taken on a growing role in supplying the world's poultry and eggs as importing nations ban chicken and turkey meat from countries with the virus.
"The entire industry is mobilized to monitor the situation identified in Espirito Santo," national meat lobby ABPA said in a statement. In other countries, avian flu outbreaks in wild birds have frequently been followed by transmission to commercial flocks. "For every 1 real spent in the Campinas federal laboratory, some 64 reais of potential losses are avoided to the meat industry," said Rodrigo Nazareno, who coordinates the national laboratory network.
After cases were confirmed in neighboring Argentina and Uruguay, Brazil announced in late March a 90-day suspension of all events involving the exposition of poultry. China and the Middle East remained big customers. And the European Union, where countries like France had to kill millions of birds to contain outbreaks, boosted import volumes from Brazil by some 23%, industry data show.around the world than ever before. While humans can contract H5N1, such cases remain rare, and global health officials have said the risk to humans is low.