The Colombian Ag Institute (ICA) has just announced the creation of a vaccine bank against avian flu in case outbreaks are detected, as part of a prevention and control program to stop the highly pathogenic virus spreading.
In addition to the U.S. and Canada, Colombia is one of the ten countries in Latin America (Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Panamá, Honduras and Chile) that have reported avian flu outbreaks in the last few months. Not all countries have had infections in commercial poultry flocks. Most of them are in backyard birds – like in Colombia – and in wild birds.
Colombia is aware that the commercial flock is not affected, but authorities want to guarantee that vaccines are available for emergency cases or vaccination campaigns. The idea is to reduce transmission risk and severity of clinical signs. And this is exactly the lesson Mexico has learned and experienced. In general terms, spreading of the virus has been controlled, and severity has also decreased in Mexican flocks. But how much the egg market is affected or not, is yet to be seen. Meanwhile, vaccination in Mexico continues.
Colombia was eager to start exporting poultry. Maybe this measure will put those dreams on hold – if control is achieved. Mexico also has the same problem, but at the end, vaccination has proven to be a good measure.
Some voices have raised the belief that trade-controlling rules – such as IA vaccination – must be redefined. They state that we must learn to live with the virus and control it.
Just as with Newcastle disease, Colombia is working hard to control poultry disease and demonstrate to the rest of the region and the world, that they can do it, even if exporting dreams are truncated.
What do you think?
