Avian Influenza Found in Mexico

The World Organization for Animal Health reports that highly contagious H7N3 avian influenza was confirmed Thursday at a farm in west-central Mexico. The virus was discovered in a flock of 15,000 birds that had been vaccinated and did not show any clinical signs of the disease, according to agriculture officials in Mexico. Reuters reports that the farm is under quarantine and the birds were sent to a nearby slaughterhouse. Mexico’s agriculture sanitation authority said the outbreak occurred in the same area where the virus was detected in 2012 and was discovered as part of a supervision program aimed at freeing the country of the disease. In March, a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu was found in a chicken breeder flock on a Tennessee farm contracted to Tyson Foods Inc, the first discovered in the United States this year. Different strains of avian flu have been detected across Asia, Europe, Africa and in the United States in recent months, leading to the culling of millions of birds.

From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.