LatinNews Daily - 21 August 2023

* Brazil’s agriculture ministry has announced that the Japanese government has lifted its suspension of poultry and egg exports from the southern state of Santa Catarina, which the ministry states is Brazil’s second-largest poultry-producing state. The ban had been in effect since 17 July after the state confirmed its first case of the H5N1 strain of bird flu (avian influenza) among domesticated birds. In a press release from the Santa Catarina state government, Governor Jorginho Mello declared that the state was “free of bird flu”. Out of Brazil’s 84 cases of bird flu, confirmed as of 18 August in the federal agriculture ministry’s database, Santa Catarina had nine cases (including wild and domesticated birds). All nine cases have been registered as ‘contained’. The state agriculture secretary, Valdir Colatto stated that Japan’s ambassador to Brazil, Teiji Hayashi, had visited Santa Catarina in July, and the state government submitted documents to the ambassador detailing the measures in place to contain the spread of bird flu.