Colombia has been declared a country free of Newcastle disease, an important poultry viral pathology.

In recent days, international animal health organizations have declared that Colombia is a country free of highly pathogenic Newcastle disease. This is a pathology that affects poultry farming worldwide and has serious economic, productive, and sanitary repercussions.

Colombia: a country free of Newcastle Disease

The international animal health organization agrees that Colombia fulfilled the requirements to proceed with its self-declaration of the whole territory as free of Newcastle disease. For this, the country had to provide evidence of the absence of viral circulation. On the other hand, the national policy that establishes the strategy for the immediate eradication of any outbreak of this viral disease has been recognized for years.

With the declaration of Colombia as a country free of highly pathogenic Newcastle disease, it is expected that the Colombian poultry sector will be further strengthened. This news allows it to open new avenues and explore international markets for the export of genetic material, chicken, and eggs. As a result, the poultry sector in Colombia will be strengthened, with the generation of new jobs in the field and in all phases that participate directly and indirectly in the poultry chain.

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According to the last poultry census of 2021 conducted by the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA), the total number of birds in Colombia amounted to 210,541,160, increasing by 4.4%, compared to the previous year. Of this population, 95.8% are poultry from technified farms and the remaining 4.2% are backyard poultry. Of the country’s total poultry population, 72.7% is concentrated in five departments: Santander (24.3%), Valle del Cauca (20.5%), Cundinamarca (17.8%), Quindío (5.1%) and Antioquia (5.0%).

Institutions and associations celebrate the sanitary statement

The manager of ICA, Deyanira Barrero León, commented on this favorable news. The manager said, “we have a national system of epidemiological surveillance, early detection, and early warning, which has allowed us to structure consistent mechanisms in the field of poultry health, to rule out the presence of the highly virulent disease in the national territory”.

In addition, the ICA manager added that “since 2014, systematic sampling of prevalence and absence of the disease has been carried out, through the diagnostic techniques of molecular biology, sequencing, viral isolation, and molecular typing”.

The executive president of Fenavi, Gonzalo Moreno, mentioned that “in the middle of a complex environment, we are experiencing a very positive milestone both for Colombia and for our poultry farming by self-declaring ourselves as a country free of notifiable Newcastle disease. This recognition is a clear example that the work between the private and public sectors, and the correct administration of public resources, can yield great results for the benefit of Colombians”.

The maximum representative of Fenavi also stated that “being Newcastle free will allow us to comply with one of the requirements demanded by the countries, to take Colombian chicken to new frontiers in the medium term. The hardest work lies ahead: to maintain the status by acting effectively on the part of all of us. We cannot let our guard down.

Finally, the Vice-Minister of Agricultural Affairs, Juan Gonzalo Botero, also welcomed the decision. “This achievement benefits a sector that generates 350 thousand quality jobs. We will continue working hand in hand with the poultry sector to maintain the sanitary status and very soon reach the tables of millions of people around the world with meat and eggs,” said the vice-minister.