Portugal registers new case of bird flu in Constância – Observer
The Directorate-General for Food and Veterinary Medicine (DGAV) confirmed this Friday an outbreak of avian influenza virus infection at a facility that holds collection birds in Constância, in the district of Santarém.
In a statement, DGAV said that the case was detected in domestic animals in the parish of Santa Margarida da Coutada, which is part of the surveillance zone of the primary outbreak detected in December in Vila Nova da Barquinha, adjoining municipality of Constância.
The Directorate-General for Veterinary Food also indicated “how outbreak control measures are already being the outbreaks according to the legislation in force”.
These The measures, he adds, include “inspection of places where the disease was detected and in the protection of animals, within a radius of protection of animals, within a radius of surveillance of the focus of protection in the zones of km”.
On the 31st of December it had been confirmed a focus on a turkey farm, in Praia do Ribatejo, Vila Nova da Barquinha, with this Friday confirmation of dead birds in Constância and the existence of new cases of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in mute ducks, found dead in the riverside park of Vila Nova da Barquinha on January 11, do not configure new outbreaks of the disease that already existed, before, linked to the outbreak.
Portugal registers new cases of bird flu in Peniche and Barquinha
“The latest cases detected in Vila Nova da Barquinha and now in Constância do not constitute new outbreaks since They are already included in the demarcated surveillance zone when the primary focus is detected” in December at Praia do Ribatejo, told Lusa Susana Pombo, from DGAV.
According to the official, Portugal currently has five active outbreaks of infection by bird flu, having been raised as restriction measures in Palmela, in the municipality of Setúbal, after, in early December, an outbreak of bird flu was detected in a region and 30 days had passed without a record of new situations.
The first two outbreaks were detected on December 1st, in a domestic poultry farm in Palmela, and, on December 23rd, on a turkey farm in Óbidos, with around 18,000 birds, there being “a link” between this farm and the third outbreak. , confirmed on December 31, in Vila Nova da Barquinha, on a farm with around six thousand turkeys.
Fourth outbreak of bird flu confirmed in Portugal
On January 4, it was detected an outbreak of avian influenza in a chicken and duck farm in Santiago do Cacém, in the district of Setúbal, and the following day a fifth outbreak was confirmed in Alpiarça, in a wild goose, which joined on January 11 in a sixth outbreak, in Peniche, detected in a seagull.
In view of the “epidemiological situation”, DGAV argues that it is important to “comply with and reinforce biosafety rules, as well as current poultry production practices, good indications of contacts between domestic and wild birds”.
“It is still extremely important to immediately notify any hypothesis, in order to allow rapid and effective control of disease measures”, he adds.
ONE notification of wild bird mortality can be done through the ANIMAS application (http://animas.icnf.pt).