And in more agricultural news, Belize's northern districts are still rebounding from a bout of Avian Flu that was reported in the middle of September.
That Flu now seems to have been contained after a bird depopulation and some new measures to avoid a repeat incident.
We got the update from Minister of Agriculture Jose Mai earlier today.
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"Well after the index farms were detected as I'll refer to them, we did the necessary, um, depopulation and further testing. Up until now we have had no more positive cases of avian influenza so that is where we are right now. Those farms are being cleaned out and other measures taken. The bio-safety measures so seem to have been working well, we have no further infections. No further incidences of the disease so far. The good thing about the agriculture sector in Belize is that we are self-sufficient in poultry products, um, in 2016 when they had this disease in Spanish lookout there was a larger amount of birds that had to. Be de-populated but the northern districts, Corozal and Orange Walk had picked up the slack and there was never a shortage of poultry. The same has happened here. While we had less depopulation the other producers in Spanish lookout, little Belize picked up the slack and there is no shortage of poultry at this time."
And Mai says that one measure to attempt to eradicate the Avian Flu moving forward will be the testing one day old chicks.
