FILE PHOTO: A drone view shows an excavator moving earth next to a hole in the ground at a poultry farm, after Brazil confirmed its first outbreak of bird flu on Friday, triggering protocols for a country-wide trade ban from top buyer China and state-wide restrictions for other major consumers, in Montenegro, Brazil May 17, 2025. REUTERS/Diego Vara/File Photo
MONTENEGRO, Brazil (Reuters) -Brazilian authorities hope to determine by Tuesday whether a confirmed outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza among wild birds in a zoo in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul is connected with the country's first bird flu case on a commercial poultry farm in the same state, an official said on Monday.
Rosane Collares, a director at the state's agriculture department, told Reuters that the genetic sequencing of the virus that killed around 100 waterfowl at the zoo in the town of Sapucaia do Sulwould reveal if it is related to the outbreak in a commercial poultry farm in the town of Montenegro, where the H5N1 bird flu virus is already responsible for the death of 17,000 chickens, either directly from the disease or due to cautionary culling.
