Brazil declares 6 months of bird flu emergency. In recent days a 61-year-old infected

Five days after the confirmation of the primo patient with symptoms of bird flu infection a Holy Spiritil Brazil declared a national health and veterinary emergency for 180 days due to the detection of the virus H5N1 in some wild birds. Five cases of the subtype have been detected in the country so far H5N1 in some specimens of the species Thalasseus acuflavidus (tern), including four in the State of Holy Spirit and one in that of Rio de Janeiro. L’Brazilian Animal Protein Association (Abpa) he said the measure taken by the ministry was already “expected and extensively discussed” with the sector productive and assured that the animals contaminated “they are not part of the Brazilian industrial system, i.e. the cases do not affect the poultry and on eggs available in supermarkets or on the food security of the population”.

Meanwhile, the ministry of Salutein recent days, explained that the infected man, who is 61 years old, works in the municipal park of Vitoria, capital of the state of Holy Spiritand would have had contact with sick birds. The patient has symptoms of “mild flu” and is in isolation, informed the dicastery. Other 32 people with symptoms and who have been in contact with infected birds are monitored by the state secretariat to the Health of Espírito Santo. Last week, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock confirmed the first two cases of bird flu. A third infected animal was later announced. The ministry declared a state of “alert”, but stressed that these are “wild animals” and not birds destined for the “industrial production” of meat and eggs. The Brazil is a major exporter of poultry to Chinesethe European Union, theSaudi Arabia and the Japan. The virus, so far, has never been transmitted from man to man, but only – as well as from animal to animal – from animated a man.