Tres Arroyos poultry plant closed due to COVID-19

With this case, Argentina becomes the second Latin American country to present COVID-19 positives in poultry processing plants. The first one was Brazil.

A simple method of 'listening' to chicks may allow welfare issues to be picked up at the earliest possible opportunity. (Katherine Herborn, University of Plymouth)
A simple method of 'listening' to chicks may allow welfare issues to be picked up at the earliest possible opportunity. (Katherine Herborn, University of Plymouth)

The largest poultry company in Argentina, Granja Tres Arroyos, decided during the last week of May to close one of its poultry processing plants in the municipality of Capitán Sarmiento (in the northern part of Buenos Aires province) after an employee tested positive for COVID-19. The closure is for an indefinite amount of time, and the company waits for an official authorization to reopen. 

The news was released by various local media, including Visión Regional, which reproduced a brief corporate statement: “For reasons of public knowledge, Granja Tres Arroyos S.A. reports that since the night of May 29, the preventive suspension of tasks was ordered at the Capitán Sarmiento plant. The return to normal operations will be subject to the evaluation and approval of the corresponding authorities, a circumstance that will be communicated in due course.”

According to various sources, one of the refrigeration operators tested positive for COVID-19. The company stopped production immediately to start with the disinfection tasks. “Another nine employees who live in Arrecifes were put in a preventive quarantine,” local media reported.

The mayor of Capitán Sarmiento, Javier Iguacel, informed that “the plant was being disinfected and it will remain closed while more tests are carried out. The first day we made more than forty (tests) to be calm, not only among the close contacts of the positive case but also of several of those who have shared shift and sector.”

“Those who had contact (with the infected employee) are perfectly identified due to the plant’s operation protocol, which divided the employees in shifts to avoid as many contacts as possible,” added Iguacel. 

With this case, Argentina becomes the second Latin American country to present COVID-19 positives in poultry processing plants. The first one was Brazil

View our continuing coverage of the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.

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