Poultry farmers are continuing the slaughter of chickens infected with N7N3 avian flu in the Jalisco municipalities of Tepatitlan and Acatic.
As of Wednesday, July 11, some 2.5 million chickens had been sacrificed, according to Mexico’s animal health agency (SENASICA).
Bird flu has now been detected in 3.5 million birds at 31 Jalisco farms, the agency says.
The number of infected birds has risen by one million in less than a week.
SENASICA’s containment zone encompasses 134 farms, housing 16.5 million birds.
Logistical problems have delayed the arrival of more than one million doses of bird flu vaccines from Pakistan, SENASICA said in a press release this week. The vaccines have to pass through Europe, whose strict sanitation rules have caused a bureaucratic holdup.More birds will be infected and sacrificed unless the vaccines are applied soon, farmers in their region say.
Meanwhile, scientists in Mexico City are busy developing a vaccine, which could be ready by August, some reports suggest.
Personnel from Mexico’s Consumer Protection Agency (Profeco) say they have visited 70 establishments selling eggs in the state of Jalisco and found price gouging at 10 percent of them.
Health authorities stress that there is no possibility that the virus can be transmitted to humans.
Mexican Economy Secretary Bruno Ferrari said there was no justification for egg price hikes, since the chicken flocks affected by the avian flu account for less than two percent of the nation’s total.
However, Ferrari did not rule out the importation of 200,000 tons of eggs from Poland, Turkey, China or the Ukraine to prevent a surge in prices if stocks diminished.