The director of the Commission for the Prevention of Foot and Mouth Disease and Other Animal Diseases (CPA) warned that, if the disease grows naturally, between 90 and 100% of the birds will die in the affected areas.

He said that Mexico has begun to map out a response to an outbreak of A/H5N1 bird flu in humans, considered the most lethal, by strengthening epidemiological surveillance with the National Service of Health, Safety and Agrifood Quality.

He revealed that a roadmap for bird flu at the animal-human interface, which includes the animal and human health sector, is being prepared.

With this collaboration, a national intersectoral guide for the epidemiological surveillance and care of bird flu at this interface will be developed in accordance with the document Long-Term Management Plan for the Control of Covid-19.

PAHO issued an epidemiological alert earlier this year in response to the increasing detection of outbreaks of highly pathogenic bird flu in birds in 10 countries in the Americas and the recent confirmation of a human infection with influenza A(H5) in Latin America and the Caribbean in a nine-year-old girl in Ecuador.

mh/arm/mgt/lma