Mexico is investigating bird deaths due to possible bird flu

Mexican agricultural authorities are investigating the deaths of 300 birds on the Pacific coast this week, from the southern state of Chiapas to the northern state of Sonora, as possible bird flu.

The The Secretariat for Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader) and the National Service for Health, Safety and Food Quality (Senasica) issued a health warning after seeing sick and dead birds.

“There is a suspicion that it could be a highly pathogenic AH5N1 virus, which can be transmitted by seabirds on their migratory return to the north of the continent, since Chile and other South American countries currently have viral activity for this pathogen,” the warning says.

The event comes after Mexico was one of the countries affected bird flu outbreak which began last year, when Mexican producers liquidated hundreds of thousands of birds and dozens of farms were quarantined due to disease.

Mexico has reported its first case of the AH5N1 bird flu strain World Organization for Animal Health (WHO) in October 2022 in a wild bird in the municipality of Metepec, in the state of Mexico, neighboring the Mexican capital.

Although the epidemic was brought under control at the end of last year, Sader recently introduced new quarantines in March at three broiler farms in the central Mexican state of Aguascalientes.

Now National Commission for Protected Natural Areas (Conanp) reported sightings of dead birds on beaches in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacán, Jalisco, Sonora and Baja California Sur.

“For this reason, Senasica launched an emergency operation in which veterinarians from the US-Mexico Commission for the Prevention of Foot-and-Mouth and Other Diseases of Exotic Animals (CPA) will visit all coastal communities,” he explained. Sader on alert.

The Secretariat clarified that one of the first reports received came from the Mexican Turtle Center in Oaxaca, in the southern state of Mexico, where official CPA veterinarians went to collect samples.

“In view of the health warning, Senasica appeals to the general public to take extreme precautions in case they find dead birds on their way. It is important not to touch them if possible,” concluded Sader.