. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/621 
20 January 2006 
 
 (06-0252) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   Spanish 
  
 
AVIAN INFLUENZA H9N2 
 
Communication from Colombia 
 
  
 The following communication, received on 18 January 2006, is being circulated at the request 
of the delegation of Colombia.  
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1. Colombia hereby submits to the Co mmittee a report supplementing document 
G/SPS/GEN/602 presented at the meeting of 24 Oct ober 2005 in connection with the situation in 
Colombia with regard to avian influenza subtyp e H9N2, in order to address the doubts and concerns 
raised, appeal for the lifting of the trade restric tions imposed by a number of countries and emphasize 
the absence of notifiable avian infl uenza viruses in national territory. 
2. In 2005, in accordance with OIE guidelines, Colo mbia carried out extensive sampling under 
its active avian influenza surveillance.  More than 30,000 samples were taken from 683 commercial 
farms belonging to different production systems, in  accordance with the sta tistical scheme adopted.  
As a result of this sampling exercise, evidence of seroreactivity to the avian influenza virus type A, 
subtype H9N2, was found in three breeder farms loca ted in Fresno, a municipality in the department 
of Tolima. The diagnosis was confirmed by the Na tional Veterinary Services Laboratory (NVSL) of 
the United States Department of Agriculture, which is  the avian influenza reference laboratory for the 
American continent. 
3. It is important to note that in the three a bove-mentioned farms there was no clinical evidence 
of the disease or any increase in mortality or chan ges in the productive parameters of the poultry 
populations concerned, and that the virus detected is a subtype not notifiable to the OIE. 
4. Once the finding had been confirmed, a team  of veterinarians, bacteriologists, 
environmentalists and health-care and support sta ff went to the area.  A total of 67 people from 
various public and private institutions (the health , environment and agriculture sectors and the poultry 
farmers' association) were involved and, pursuant to emergency planning provisions, they went into 
action immediately.  Their work was supervised and coordinated by the Colombian Agricultural 
Institute (ICA), which organized them into two gro ups.  The first group carried out epidemiological 
surveillance and monitoring activities in a 5 km area around the quarantined farms, and the second 
group worked in a 15 km radius around that area. 
5. All establishments with commercial and b ackyard poultry in the areas subject to 
epidemiological surveillance and tracing were inspected (layers, broilers, genetic material, hatcheries,  
quail, geese, wild birds in their natural environm ent and in captivity, ducks, ornamental birds and 
fighting birds).  All the workers of the company th at owns the three farms, and those of the farms 
most at risk, were medically examined, and thei r places of residence were also checked for the 
presence of any species of bird.  All migratory bi rd arrival sites, waterways, places where poultry G/SPS/GEN/621 
Page 2  
 
  meat is distributed and consumed, live bird supplie rs, poultry droppings storag e and distribution areas, 
processing plants, farms for which birds (progeny) ar e destined, places where concentrations of birds 
are found and bird markets were inspected, yet no  other evidence of the presence of the avian 
influenza virus or other subtypes thereof was found.  However, as an emergency measure, the three farms concerned have been kept in quaran tine and under official 24-hour surveillance, on an 
ongoing basis, since the date when the seroreactivity was detected. 
6. During the epidemiological investigation, 1,779 premises were inspected and 
5,758 serological samples - in addition to supplemen tary samples in the form of tracheal or cloacal 
swabs and tissues - were collected from 957 establishmen ts with backyard and commercial poultry, in 
an attempt to isolate the virus.  356 visits were al so made to the homes of company workers and their 
families.  As part of the epidemiological traci ng exercise, a further 1,768 samples were taken at 
25 farms from the progeny of the quarantined fa rms.  All of the samples tested negative. 
7. None of the farms, neither those within the areas subject to surveillance and monitoring nor 
those with progeny from the quarantined farms, presented any symptoms consistent with avian influenza or showed any unusual increases in mort ality or changes in productive and reproductive 
parameters. 
8. Once the laboratory results had been analysed and the respective risk assessment procedures 
carried out, the ICA gave authorization for the birds to be taken to the processing plant of the company that owned them, to be destroyed.  To secu re such authorization, risk mitigation procedures 
were implemented and the operation was supervised by officials. 
9. The affected farms will continue to be part of a sentinelization process until they are 
repopulated;  they have been included in a progr amme of frequent serological surveillance in 2006. 
10. It should be stressed that Colombia has given priority to the principle of transparency by 
notifying the world of the above-mentioned findi ngs, even though it is not necessary to notify the 
detected subtype H9 pursuant to Chapter 2.7.12 of  the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code.  The 
response of some countries, however, was not consiste nt with the reality of the situation and some 
even maintain restrictions on trade in Colombian pou ltry products, thus violating the principles of the 
SPS Agreement and the regional agreements  to which Colombia is a party. 
11. Colombia, through the Andean Community, has requested the assistance of OIE laboratory 
and field experts to assess the action already take n and advise on further supplementary measures. 
12. Colombia endorses the Brasilia Declaration of 2 December 2005, adopted at the Hemispheric 
Conference on the Surveillance and Prevention of Av ian Influenza, which refers to the need for 
countries to provide notification in accordance w ith OIE standards and recommendations, and to 
respond pursuant to the provisions of the OIE and th e WTO, with a view to preventing the imposition 
of trade restrictions not based on science. 
13. Lastly, Colombia would like to thank the c ountries which have acknowledged the efforts it 
has made, its timely response and the example it has gi ven to the world by taking action to deal with 
the discovery of non-notifiable low pathogenic subtype  H9N2 in order to protect and maintain animal 
health in the country and the region. 
 
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