By Roberto Samora, Isabel Teles and Lisandra Paraguassu
SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil, the world’s largest chicken exporter, ruled out three of seven suspected cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, officials told a press conference on Monday, citing laboratory test results.
The government had been investigating seven cases after the first outbreak was confirmed on a commercial farm in Brazil last week, according to updated information on the agriculture ministry’s website.
Two of the cases still under investigation concern poultry raised on commercial farms and five involved backyard flocks in Brazil, which sold some $10 billion worth of chicken products globally last year, supplying more than 5 million metric tons.
All three negative tests related to samples taken from subsistence, non-commercial farms, officials said.
Under existing protocols signed between Brazil and trade partners including China, the European Union and South Korea, nationwide bans apply to poultry imports in case of a bird flu outbreak on a commercial farm.
Protocols with buyers Japan, UAE and Saudi Arabia provide for local trade restrictions.
Officials also told reporters the United States said it would continue buying eggs from Brazil. The U.S. boosted Brazilian egg imports after domestic prices hit a record high due to U.S. bird flu outbreaks.
One of the cases that remain under investigation was at a commercial farm in the state of Tocantins, and the other a commercial farm in Santa Catarina, according to the officials.
The first commercial-farm outbreak was confirmed last week in Brazil’s southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul.
"People are on high alert," agriculture minister Carlos Favaro told TV reporters outside his ministry on Monday, referring to the cases under investigation. "Farmers, whether on commercial or subsistence farms, report it when they see a sick animal, and it’s good that it is that way."
Brazil would be considered free of bird flu if no new cases of the disease are confirmed in a 28-day window after the initial outbreak, Favaro said.
That would not mean that exports would be restored immediately, but Brazil would be in a position to negotiate with buyers to relax restrictions triggered by exiting health protocols.
Brazil’s chicken exports account for more than 35% of the global trade, making regional or nationwide trade embargoes painful not just for Brazilian farmers but also for major importers.
China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are among the main destinations for Brazil’s chicken exports.
In addition to last Friday’s confirmation of an outbreak of bird flu on a commercial farm in Montenegro, in Brazil’s southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities also confirmed a case in a black-necked swan in the town of Sapucaia do Sul, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Montenegro.