The Ministry of Agriculture creates the Emergency Center for the control of bird flu
The committee will aim to establish actions to combat the disease; The first records of contaminated birds occurred this month in wildlife
O Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa) created this Friday, the 26th, an Agricultural Emergency Operations Center whose objective is to control the spread of bird flu in Brazil. Published today in the Official Gazette, the measure aims to act as an institutional articulating mechanism in response to the state of zoosanitary emergency that has been in force in the country since last Monday the 22nd and will last for 180 days. Named COE-Mapa Avian Influenza, the group will be commanded by the Secretariat of Agricultural Defense (SDA) as a way to combat highly pathogenic avian influenza (IAAP), which had the first official contamination of the influenza virus, H5N1, this month. . “Among the attributions of the operational center are the distribution of information to the population, the identification and approval of mechanisms to support the Map bodies to combat the advancement of IAAP cases”, the Ministry clarifies through a note released.
According to the ministerial file, the virus is highly pathogenic and can cause changes in the bodies of infected birds. In total, eight cases were confirmed in wild birds, seven of them in the state of Espírito Santo and one in Rio de Janeiro. The government of Rio de Janeiro is even preparing an emergency plan against bird flu after a wild bird was diagnosed with the H5N1 virus in the city of São João da Barra, in the interior of the state. So far, 38 Brazilians have been examined with suspected contamination and their tests have come back negative for the presence of the virus in their bodies. 34 of them in Espírito Santo and four in Rio de Janeiro. In the territory of Espírito Santo, 33 negative results were given by employees of the Fazendinha park, where one of the contaminated birds was found, and another by a servant of the Institute for Research and Rehabilitation of Marine Animals (Ipram). Four more people have not yet announced their results.
