GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Oct. 1, CMC – Guyana is on high alert for bird flu (H5N1 avian influenza), following an outbreak in neighbouring Suriname where at least 5,000 chickens on a farm were killed by the virus and a remaining 1,000 culled, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha said Wednesday.
“We have a strong mechanism in place, a strong surveillance system. We have checks at various farms so we are working,” he told Demerara Waves Online News
Although word of the virus emerged two weeks ago in Suriname,r Mustapha said officially of the presence of the disease from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) yesterday, after Suriname informed that France-headquartered organisation.
The agriculture minister said the quarantine border controls were also conducting checks and a committee was also conducting regular checks.
Suriname’s ministry of agriculture said daily inspections were being conducted by the 20 extension officers who were interviewing poultry farmers and assessing farms
So far, some samples have been sent to a foreign laboratory through the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to determine the virus’s genetic origin, with results expected within weeks.
CMC/gy/kb/2026