As part of the Wetlands Program, an initiative to prevent Avian Influenza outbreaks in Chilean wetlands, a training on poultry health, product management, and biosecurity was carried out.
The Wetlands Program is a private sector project to prevent the entry of exotic and endemic diseases by supporting backyard poultry farmers near seven wetlands of epidemiological importance. This is done to preserve the animal health asset and avoid the consequences that an outbreak of a disease with high economic and productive impact could produce, such as bird culling, market closures, economic losses, etc. Wetlands are ecosystems for wild and migratory birds, and when this program was created in 2015, the Northern Hemisphere was suffering an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza.
As part of this initiative, last November ChileCarne led training sessions in the localities of San Fernando and Marchigüe, for staff members of the Agricultural Development Institute (INDAP) in the Metropolitan and O’Higgins regions. The trainings covered topics such as exotic and endemic diseases, biosecurity, bird management, and necropsy, led by Álvaro González from the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG); Christopher Hamilton, from Universidad de Chile; Rodrigo Carvajal, poultry farming adviser; and Carolina Larraín, ChileCarne’s Head of Poultry Health.
“These types of activities are important as they allow INDAP technicians to update their knowledge on poultry health, which in turn impacts the assistance provided to small producers for early detection and prevention of the entry of various diseases, mainly avian influenza,” Larraín commented.
This program has also been helpful in preventing other diseases with an impact on production, such as Newcastle and other endemic diseases.
