The problem

In May 2002, Chilean sanitary authorities were notified of a possible outbreak of avian influenza (AI – also known as bird flu). Until then, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) had never occurred in Chile or in any other country in South America.

Chilean authorities and the poultry industry were suddenly confronted with huge challenges: (i) the control of a highly contagious viral disease that can produce very high levels of mortality; (ii) the eradication of the disease in order to regain the status it had as a disease-free country; and (iii) the need to maintain the confidence of its major trading partner to ensure that the safeguard sanitary measure adopted by the European Commission would not be transformed into a permanent measure.

The first outbreak occurred in a broiler breeder farm that hosted 617,800 breeders and a hatchery and was located near a broiler operation containing nearly 1.5 million broilers. It was followed by a second outbreak in a turkey breeder farm that held four dark houses for young birds containing a total of 26,000 birds, four breeding houses with 24,000 birds and a hatchery.

At the time of the outbreak, the poultry industry in Chile was concentrated in seven companies producing over 400,000 tons a year of fresh poultry meat with an average annual growth of 11.4%. Exports amounted to US$69 million in 2001, $44 million in 2002 and $72 million in 2003, with Mexico and the European Union (EU) accounting for over 80% of total exports.