Senasa confirmed the first commercial HPAI H5N1 case on 28 February 2023 and immediately self-suspended poultry exports to all markets requiring HPAI-free certification. WOAH notification was issued 1 March 2023. Senasa issued Resolution No. 147/2023 declaring a national animal health emergency. Stamping-out was implemented at the affected Río Negro broiler establishment, with at least 630,000 birds culled. The EU suspended imports of fresh poultry and game bird meat from consignments certified from 28 February 2023, permitting only treatment D-processed products. China’s GACC suspended all Argentine poultry export establishments. Domestic supply was maintained without interruption. Within approximately one month, Senasa negotiated revised certificates with trading partners including Uruguay, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Japan, and certain African countries, enabling trade in heat-treated products and, for some partners, fresh poultry from disease-free zones. By June 2023, after completion of outbreak control and surveillance, Argentina submitted its WOAH self-declaration of HPAI-free status restoration, providing the basis for progressive normalisation of export certificates. DALRRD progress reporting in the comparable South Africa HPAI episode documented higher culling volumes; Argentina’s 2023 episode was proportionally smaller in direct flock losses but more significant in trade impact given Argentina’s role as an exporter to approximately 55 markets.

Anticipated Effects

If Senasa maintains the existing policy of automatic export self-suspension upon HPAI detection in commercial poultry, future outbreaks would be expected to produce comparable trade disruption patterns, creating strong incentives for producers and exporters to invest in biosecurity to reduce outbreak risk.

If trading partners continue to apply regionalization and product-treatment approaches, Argentina’s poultry export sector would be expected to adapt by shifting product mix toward processed items and by developing compartmentalised or zoned production structures with differentiated sanitary status.

Whether the 2023 enforcement response produced any lasting structural change to Argentina’s commercial poultry system — beyond establishing the response pattern — is not established in available sources; the documented record indicates rapid recovery of trade and production within the same year.

Significance Rationale

Assigned Reduces Exploitation (impact direction) because Senasa’s stamping-out of infected commercial flocks and the export suspension produced a documented, if temporary, contraction: at least 630,000 chickens were culled in the Río Negro outbreak; Argentina’s export-oriented poultry production contracted as export channels to approximately 55 markets were suspended or restricted. Domestic production continued, so the impact is partial rather than system-wide.

Assigned Changes Scale (impact type) because the primary mechanism is the compulsory depopulation of infected and contact flocks — directly eliminating birds from the commercial production system — combined with an export suspension that contracted the scale of export-oriented poultry production for the duration of the enforcement period. The loss of HPAI-free status and export suspension are direct consequences of the disease control response.

Assigned Moderate significance because the culling affected a relatively small proportion of Argentina’s commercial flock compared with the South Africa 2023 HPAI record (7.5–8.25 million birds, approximately 30% of layer capacity). The trade disruption was broader in geographic reach — approximately 55 export markets — but was resolved within approximately four months. The outbreak did not structurally alter Argentina’s commercial poultry system.

The scale change is transitional: Argentina’s export-oriented poultry channels contracted in early 2023 and partial to substantial trade recovery was documented within the same year following the June 2023 WOAH self-declaration of HPAI-free status restoration.