Mexico Creates a Bank of 70 Million Vaccines Against Avian Influenza

Mexico is prepared with a bank of 70 million doses of avian influenza vaccine for any emergency, and a Plan of Action to declare the country free of this evil that affected dozens of farms this year, Animal Health CEO, Hugo Fragoso Sanchez reported Saturday.

Surveillance is currently maintained on farms that were affected by this disease, where new born and breeding birds are monitored under the vaccination program that will run until next March or April, reported Fregoso.

Menübereich almost 100 days without presenting new cases of highly dangerous avian influenza (AH7N3) or viral isolates in the poultry population in the highlands of Jalisco, in western Mexico region most affected by an outbreak this year , or elsewhere in the country, according to authorities.

Given the situation of the past months, Enrique Sanchez Cruz, head of the National Service of Health, Food Safety and Quality (Senasica), gave 250 awards to public servants involved in the control of the disease.

Cruz Sanchez said that technicians Senasica developed in Mexico in a timely manner the AH7N3 virus vaccine in collaboration with the National Veterinary Biologics Production, and three private laboratories, enabling control the outbreak in four months.

He explained that the joint work also allowed to deliver the vaccine producers, only 39 days of notification of the outbreak.

Mexico, he said, is internationally recognized by health authorities producer organizations of various countries and international organizations for efficient response to the outbreak was contained, especially lethal characteristics of the virus that attacked the hens in highland Jalisco.

He recalled that the health status of Mexico has allowed the country to locate as a  number 14  an exporter of food products among 178 nations entered in the World Animal Health Organization.