Mexico detects H5N1 avian influenza in farm near US border

An unspecified number of birds will be euthanised
calendar icon 31 October 2022
clock icon 1 minute read

Mexico has detected the severe H5N1 strain of avian influenza at a 60,000-bird commercial farm in Nuevo Leon state on the border with the United States, Reuters reported, citing the government as its source.

The discovery at the chicken farm comes just over a week after Mexico reported its first-ever case of H5N1 avian influenza to the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).

The disease was detected when Mexico's agri-food health service tested samples from a farm in Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon, after a producer there raised concerns, Mexico's agricultural ministry said in a statement.

A quarantine has been declared and an unspecified number of birds will be euthanised to control the outbreak, the ministry said. It did not say how many birds were infected.

Mexico's first case of the virus was detected in a wild bird in the Metepec district to the west of capital Mexico City.

Another H5N1 case was found in a wild bird in Tijuana in Baja California state, Mexico's agriculture ministry said, as well as in a 186-chicken, family-run farm in Chiapas in the country's south.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza has killed poultry in the United States and Europe, with experts concerned the virus did not abate this year as it has previously done during the northern hemisphere summer.

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