Argentina resumes its exports of poultry meat to the European Union (EU) after the bloc lifted the ban in force since February due to an outbreak of avian influenza, a viral disease transmitted by wild, poultry, and backyard birds.
“The EU resolution was published yesterday (Tuesday), so exports have been authorized since that day,” sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Sputnik.
On August 7, Argentina declared itself before the World Organization for Animal Health (WHO) as a country without cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), after deeming the last of the 18 outbreaks it had reported to have ended and not detecting new ones.
The Latin American nation had to adopt a series of measures to recover the status of an HPAI-free country, such as stamping-out policies, cleaning and disinfection actions in affected establishments, and a surveillance program to demonstrate the absence of infections.
Argentina thus recovers a market that last year contributed 7.8 million euros after confirming a 100% increase compared to 2021, according to estimates from the Ministry of Agriculture.
On Tuesday, a dead sea lion was found on the beaches of Villa Gesell, in the province of Buenos Aires (east), and the authorities suspect that it is a case of avian influenza after confirming other infections in the sea lion farms of the towns of Mar del Plata and Necochea, in the same jurisdiction.
The National Agri-Food Health and Quality Service confirmed the first positive cases of HPAI H5 in wild mammals in mid-August after finding seven sea lions affected by this disease in Ro Grande, in the southern Patagonian province of Tierra del Fuego.
