The Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader) of Mexico called on Tuesday the National Union of Poultry Farmers (UNA) and government agencies to coordinate preventive actions against the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) AH5N1, which has been detected in the country in migratory birds from the United States and Canada.

With the aim of outlining the joint strategy to prevent the disease from affecting national poultry production, human health and natural areas, Sader said in a statement that different specialists met this day at the headquarters of the National Health Service, Food Safety and Food Quality (Senasica).

Experts in animal health, epidemiological surveillance in human and animal health, wildlife and protected natural areas, from the Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and Environment and Natural Resources, met with poultry producers from different regions of the country.

The representatives agreed that these actions should be addressed from the perspective of the “One Health” concept, proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Organization World Animal Health (WHO).

That concept recognizes that human and animal health are interdependent and linked to the health of the ecosystems in which they exist.

The chief director of Senasica, Francisco Javier Trujillo, pointed out that the unit has been operating the National Animal Health Emergency Device (Dinesa) since June 3, through which they have launched all the resources of the Government of Mexico to protect the national aviculture of the IAAP.

Meanwhile, the head of Animal Health, Juan Gay Gutiérrez, reported that Senasica technicians are already investigating whether existing vaccines are effective against this virus.

In addition, he highlighted to the producers “the responsibility they have to quickly report any suspicion that arises in their production units”, since with this they protect the entire productive plant of the country.

During the meeting, it was reported that Senasica permanently conducts epidemiological research on this virus and other threats of exotic diseases for Mexico that circulate in the world, through the Sanitary Emergency Operations Center (COES).

According to data from Agriculture of Mexico, each year the poultry industry produces more than 3.6 million tons of poultry meat and almost three million tons of eggs, with a value close to 200,000 million pesos (10,000 million dollars). ).

Since 2021, the HPAI variant AH5N1 has spread to 66 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas and has affected more than 120 million wild and domestic birds.

Last Friday, the World Organization for Animal Health (WHO) reported that the bird flu virus was detected in a wild bird in the municipality of Metepec, in the State of Mexico.

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