SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil, the world's largest chicken exporter, is currently investigating six potential outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza, known as bird flu, according to updated data on the Agriculture Ministry's website.
Two of the ongoing investigations concern poultry raised on commercial farms and four refer to backyard flocks in Brazil, which sold some $10 billion worth of chicken products globally last year, supplying more than 5 million metric tons.
Under existing protocols signed between Brazil and trade partners, those including China, the European Union and South Korea would ban poultry imports nationwide in case of a bird flu outbreak on a commercial farm.
Protocols with buyers Japan, UAE and Saudi Arabia provide for local trade restrictions.
One of the cases under investigation concerns a commercial farm in the state of Tocantins, and the other a commercial farm in Santa Catarina, according to the ministry's website.
The first commercial-farm outbreak was confirmed last week in Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul.
"People are on high alert," agriculture minister Carlos Favaro told TV reporters outside his ministry on Monday, referring to the cases under investigation. "Farmers, whether on commercial or subsistence farms, report it when they see a sick animal, and it's good that it is that way."
Favaro said that Brazil would be considered free of bird flu if no new cases of the disease were confirmed in a 28-day window after the initial outbreak.
That would not mean that exports would be restored immediately, but Brazil would be in a position to negotiate with buyers to relax restrictions triggered by exiting health protocols.
Brazil's chicken exports account for more than 35% of the global trade, making regional or nationwide trade embargoes painful not just for Brazilian farmers but also major importers.
China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are among the main destinations for Brazil's chicken exports.
As well as last Friday's confirmation of an outbreak of bird flu on a commercial farm in Montenegro, in Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities also confirmed a case in a black-necked-swan in the town of Sapucaia do Sul, about 50 kilometers (31.07 miles) from Montenegro.
(Reporting by Isabel Teles and Roberto Samora; Writing by Ana Mano; Editing by Mark Porter, Kirsten Donovan and David Evans)
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