More than 150 technicians from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), Agrocalidad and members of the Armed Forces sacrificed the birds, as part of the control protocols of the National Contingency Plan.
Referential image of the birds in one of the Cotopaxi farms.
About 150 technicians from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), Agrocalidad and members of the Armed Forces slaughtered 180,000 birds from the farm affected by avian influenza.
The birds were part of a farm in a rural parish in the Latacunga canton, Cotopaxi province.
Slaughtering is part of the control protocols of the National Contingency Plan.
According to a Ministry bulletin, the technicians carried out an initial cleaning and disinfection of the farm. After eight days, they will perform a final cleaning and disinfection.
Bernardo Manzano, Minister of Agriculture, assured that all the protocols to control the virus are complied with, which -according to he insisted- does not affect humans.
The protocol will continue 21 days after disinfection and cleaning, where the induction of sentinel birds negative for avian influenza will proceed. The MAG and Agrocalidad will take samples from these sentinel birds to rule out the presence of the virus.
In case of obtaining negative results in this period, they will carry out the complete repopulation of the farm. Likewise, in the event that the sentinels have a positive result for influenza, the process will be restarted with the slaughter of the birds and the entire process described above.
Christian Zambrano, coordinator of Animal Health at Agrocalidad, pointed out that sampling and re-sampling were carried out in the surrounding areas where the avian influenza outbreak was found, and the results are negative.
“This allows us to continue with the sentinel process. The total repopulation of the farm would be in 50 days from the initial cleaning and disinfection”, he added.
In addition to the Government’s actions, Rodrigo García, an expert from the Pan American Foot-and-Mouth Disease Center-Panaftosa , will advise nationals in handling the outbreak and will provide technical assistance at the focal point.
