Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, presumably strain H5N1, was isolated from geese, chickens and sparrowhawks in the Havana Zoological Garden.  This observation is consistent with the emergence of HPAI in nine nations in Central and South America.  The World Organization for Animal Health has received reports of outbreaks in Bolivia, Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Venezuela and Chile.  It is significant that all of these nations have reported HPAI within four months.  Cases include free-living migratory and domestic birds including pelicans and both backyard and commercial poultry flocks.

The World Organization for Animal Health has called for increased surveillance and intensified biosecurity to limit losses which to date have accounted for 1.2 million commercial birds, uncountable free-living birds and marine mammals, including seals that have died in their hundreds along the central Pacific Coast.