Vaccination against bird flu will start next week with 4 million doses that arrived in the country | Economy | News

The vaccination process against bird flu will begin next week, the Agency for Phytosanitary and Zoosanitary Regulation and Control (Agrocalidad) announced on Wednesday afternoon, February 22, after confirming that the first 4 million doses that will serve to inoculate around 2 million birds are already in the country.

Vaccines against avian influenza are already in the country, say poultry farmers, who ask that they begin to be inoculated next week

The agency reported that in this first phase a part of the poultry population will be vaccinated, according to the focus and perifocus of the confirmed outbreaks in the country, and will start with the farms that comply with the implementation of biosecurity measures, negative results to diagnostic tests, responsible veterinarian and registration with the Agency.

The first outbreak was detected at the end of November 2022 on a farm in the province of Cotopaxi, then other outbreaks were confirmed in Tungurahua and Bolívar.

In this way, the Agency responded to the request of the poultry sector, which through the Union of Egg Producers (Uniproh) reported last week on the arrival of vaccines imported by the Macuna-Avimexy business alliance and requested that vaccination begin next week and not from next April as initially scheduled.

Meanwhile, Agrocalidad also confirmed that a second company was also authorized, Boehringer Ingelheim del Ecuador, which will be in charge of a new import of biological material and which will arrive in Ecuador in the coming weeks.

Small egg producers held a sit-in in Quito to demand concrete solutions from the Government regarding avian flu outbreaks

The Agency warned that the vaccine is a tool that is complemented by biosecurity measures; it is biologically safe so it does not constitute a risk to humans. Decreases the mortality rate from 80% to 40% or less; however, it does not prevent contagion to other farms.

“To guarantee the application and optimal use of the vaccine, the Agency complies with the quality control protocol, following the standards of the World Organization for Animal Health – OMSA, in order to verify the quality of the biological,” said Agrocalidad. (YO)