24 July 2026
The State Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Sustainable Production, and Irrigation (Seapi) of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, has confirmed a case of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in a non-commercial backyard flock in the municipality of Coqueiros do Sul.
Chronological Overview and Diagnostic Confirmation:
- July 14: Following an initial notification, field epidemiologists from Seapi’s Department of Animal Health Surveillance and Defense inspected the affected property, initiated trace-back protocols, and collected diagnostic specimens.
- July 17: Official laboratory confirmation was provided by the Federal Agricultural Defense Laboratory in Campinas (LFDA-SP), a designated reference facility for the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).
Under WOAH international standards, HPAI detections restricted to backyard, subsistence, or non-commercial poultry do not alter the official disease-free status of either the state of Rio Grande do Sul or Brazil as a whole. Consequently, international trade in Brazilian poultry and poultry products remains unaffected.
Brazil first documented HPAI detections in non-commercial backyard poultry in 2023, following the initial expansion of the virus across South America.
