Brigade members of the Provincial Forest Fire Fighting Service (SPLIF) in the city of San Carlos de Bariloche in Rio Negro are working to prevent the spread of the bird flu virus in the province, official sources reported.
The brigade members visit sheds to remove birds from them, which are later slaughtered due to the multiplication of virus cases on farms in the Patagonian province, which led to the declaration of an agricultural emergency in the area.
Among these measures were included the Splif brigade members, who are in charge of emptying the sheds in which at least one positive case was detected.
As reported by the head of Splif in Bariloche, Orlando Báez in dialogue with local media, “seventeen brigade members were assigned to this task entrusted to them by the Provincial Government.”
“We have to help vacate the sheds, remove the birds, take them to a sector and Senasa is in charge of eliminating the specimens,” Báez explained to the press regarding the procedure.
Báez also specified that the sacrifice is carried out through a gas chamber and that wells were dug in which the birds are buried.
“It is quite complex, cases have been detected in many sheds,” said the chief about this procedure that if there is evidence of a positive case, it leads to the elimination of all production, which could lead many producers to lose their source of employment.
As they explained to the brigade members, “once the birds are removed, they have to keep the sheds closed for a year.”
To date there are five cases of avian flu confirmed in the province, the first being confirmed three weeks ago in a broiler chicken establishment located in Mainqué.
Source: Ambito
