Brazil urges EU to lift bird flu ban on chicken exports
Fávaro defends health system, seeks trade resumption soon
11 July 2025
2 minute read
By: On Thursday, Brazil's Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Carlos Fávaro, participated in a high-level meeting by videoconference with the Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare of the European Union (EU), Olivér Várhelyi, according to a government-issued press release.
The meeting aimed to discuss the next steps for the withdrawal of the restrictions imposed by the European bloc on Brazilian chicken meat exports, after the confirmation of an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (IAAP) in a commercial farm in the municipality of Montenegro (RS), in May of this year.
By highlighting the importance of the meeting, Minister Fávaro reinforced the efficiency of the Brazilian health system and stated that the country has already completed all the required measures, having even recovered the status of free of the disease from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).
"It's not about celebrating the crisis, but about recognizing the opportunity we had to demonstrate the robustness of our health system," said Fávaro. "We comply with all protocols, control the focus and, knowing the Brazilian and European health regulations and their equivalence - with the due particularities -, I formally request the recognition, also by the European Union, of Brazil as a country free of avian flu. This is the main request of this meeting."
Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi thanked the transparency of the Brazilian government in relation to the outbreak and recognized the agility of the authorities in containing the disease. "As you know, our rules go beyond the parameters defined by the WHO. We still need additional information about your surveillance program. This is a technical and routine procedure, applied uniformly to both third countries and the Member States of the European Union themselves," explained Várhelyi.
At the end of the videoconference, Minister Fávaro said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa) is mobilized to meet the additional demands of the EU as quickly as possible.
"I leave satisfied with the referrals of the meeting and confident that, with the sending of the requested additional information, Brazil will have its health status duly recognized by the European Union, allowing the full resumption of chicken meat exports," said the minister.
Also participating in the meeting were the Secretary of Agricultural Defense, Carlos Goulart; the Deputy Secretary of Agricultural Defense, Allan Alvarenga; the Deputy Secretary of Trade and International Relations, Marcel Moreira; the director of the Department of Animal Health of the SDA, Marcelo Mota; the head of the Special Advisory of Social Communication of Mapa, Carla Madeira and the agricultural attaché of Brazil in Brussels/EU, Glauco Bertoldo.
