The Ministério da Agricultura e Pecuária (Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, or Mapa) confirmed on Tuesday a third outbreak of Newcastle disease in Santa Catarina. The case was detected on a commercial farm in Nova Erechim, in the west of the state, holding 9,600 birds — none of them showing clinical signs, according to Cidasc, the state's agricultural development agency.
It is the fourth case on a commercial flock recorded in the country. The finding did not come from a tip-off: it turned up in the intensified surveillance the official veterinary service was already running inside the emergency zone declared after the first outbreak.
The sequence of outbreaks
The first case was confirmed on 18 October, on a turkey farm in Nova Itaberaba with some 6,000 birds. The samples that revealed it had been collected on 21 September, also in active surveillance and also in birds without symptoms. The second outbreak was confirmed on 24 October, in Coronel Freitas.
In Nova Itaberaba, sanitary measures have been completed and the premises are under a sanitary void. In Coronel Freitas, the culling and sanitary burial of the turkeys are finished, with cleaning and disinfection still under way. In Nova Erechim, Cidasc widened the surveillance radius by about 9.5 km and opened the epidemiological investigation.
The animal-health emergency is set out in Mapa's Ordinance 962/2026, runs for 60 days and covers four neighbouring municipalities: Nova Itaberaba, Nova Erechim, Coronel Freitas and Águas Frias. Between 20 and 26 October, teams inspected 684 properties in the region — 133 commercial and 551 subsistence flocks — and four sanitary barriers were set up.
What has already happened to exports
The trade fallout began before this third outbreak. After the Nova Itaberaba case was confirmed, China restricted purchases of poultry meat from Santa Catarina alone, keeping the other states — the result of negotiation by the Brazilian government to head off a nationwide ban. Chile also limited its restriction to the state, with a longer list of products that includes hatching eggs, day-old chicks and fresh poultry meat.
Mexico went further and suspended imports from all of Brazil, covering live birds and meat through to hatching eggs and ornamental birds. According to the Brazilian Animal Protein Association (ABPA), Mexico was the seventh-largest buyer of Brazilian chicken last year.
Under the rules in force, Brazil could only be considered free of the disease again 90 days after the outbreaks are closed. The government has asked the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) to shorten that period, but the change has not been implemented.
The closest precedent is from July 2024, when an outbreak in Anta Gorda, in Rio Grande do Sul, halted sales to China: about a month later shipments from the other states resumed, and poultry from Rio Grande do Sul was only cleared the following January.
The risk for consumers
Mapa says poultry products that pass official sanitary inspection remain safe to eat. According to WOAH, human infection with the virus is rare, usually mild, and occurs mainly through direct contact with infected birds.
Producers in the region are told to report any suspicion to the local Cidasc office or through the e-Sisbravet system.
With information from the Ministério da Agricultura e Pecuária, Cidasc, ABPA, ND Mais, Exame, FeedFood and Tribuna do Sertão.
