Corrientes’ Santa Ana Poultry Farm threw out about 360,000 eggs worth $7 million despite a negative second bird flu test. And you will have to get rid of other goods since the National Service for Agri-Food Hygiene and Quality (Senasa) has requested a third sampling, which does not allow you to market your products.
“They force us to take another sample. And they keep the ban on the establishment,” he said Daniel EncizzoGeneral Manager of Avícola Santa Ana after Senasa’s call to justice for a third champion.
The poultry farmer first denounced the test carried out by Senasa, which according to the agency was positive, forcing Santa Ana to slaughter the 200,000 hens it has in production.
As the company has denounced from the beginning, there had been procedural errors on Senasa’s part. In a press release, the company assured that on Tuesday 4 April a Senasa official was present in the company who warned that at no time did he enter the sheds or have contact with the animals, he only left a kit to carry samples in the hands of a registered veterinarian, (professional who has the Senasa registration, certified in product safety, but who has no training in hygiene, much less to take samples).
“This person assumed the testing would be done by the poultry company, while the owners of the business trusted the specialist to do it. In this state of confusion, the samples were not done and the kits were returned to Senasa empty.” . They reported from the poultry farm.
On Thursday, April 6, Lisandro Enciso, owner of Santa Ana, received a call from the agency informing him that the results had been negative. Data that mysteriously changed after a few hours, when they contacted them that same night to let them know that 20 hens had tested positive. The national body therefore ordered the company to cull 200,000 birds on Saturday April 8 due to this alleged detection of bird flu,” added Corrientes’ company.
In light of this, Santa Ana denounced the groundlessness of the sanitary measure of Senasa and that it would have resulted in the closure of the company as an irreversible consequence the loss of more than 300 jobs. This is why they appeared before the Justice, to ask “that the relative withdrawals be made and thus the decision taken in such an arbitrary and disastrous way stop”.
In response to this request, the National Judiciary, through the Federal Court of First Instance of Corrientes, accepted the appeal for amparo presented by the poultry company and established a deadline of 24 hours from the sentence for Senasa to present the evidence in support of the ” rifle sanitary” provision: “The Senasa Animal Health Service is invited to produce a report within the term of one (1) day that takes account of the public interest involved in the procedure and regarding the extraction of samples and their chain of custody as established in article 4 of law 26.854”, he ordered in the press release.
Thus, as reported by Senasa herself this Friday, the second collection of farmed birds, ordered by order of the Federal Justice, gave a negative result due to the presence of AI.
“Considering that Argentina has been going through a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) emergency since it entered the country, the high and rapid spread of the virus, added to the fact that the farm in question is located inside of the area at risk due to its proximity to a confirmed outbreak and given the combination of divergent results on the presence of the HPAI virus inside it, Senasa deems it pertinent maintain the prohibition of suspected establishment for at least 14 days from the first withdrawal (April 4, 2023) and carry out a third withdrawal for the development of both molecular (RT-PCR) and serological techniques, which was communicated to the judicial authority”, they remarked in a statement released by the Healthcare Company.
Avícola Santa Ana is a family business dedicated to the production and marketing of poultry products. It is located in the town of Corrientes, on provincial road 43, produces 450,000 eggs a month and supplies the domestic market.
Source: Clarin
