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Hector Guerrero / AFP - Getty Images
An employee sprays a farm under quarantine following a bird flu outbreak in Tepatitlan, Jalisco State, Mexico on Wednesday. Mexican government declared a national animal health emergency on Monday in the face of an aggressive bird flu epidemic that has infected nearly 1.7 million poultry. The emergency declaration included provisions for quarantine, slaughter, vaccination, and the destruction of infected products.
Hector Guerrero / AFP - Getty Images
Chickens remain in their cages in a farm under quarantine in Tepatitlan, Jalisco State, Mexico.
Hector Guerrero / AFP - Getty Images
Mexico's Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries, & Nutrition veterinarian Adolfo Ortiz works in a mobile laboratory in Guadalajara.
Hector Guerrero / AFP - Getty Images
View of a sanitary checkpoint (including cardboard cutout of a flag-waver) installed by the Mexican Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries, & Nutrition following a bird flu outbreak in Tepatitlan, Jalisco State.
Reuters reports that an outbreak of avian flu has killed at least 870,000 poultry birds in Mexico:
"The virus has never been out of control. It is localized in two places in Jalisco and up until now there is no evidence that it is anywhere else," the official said, asking not be named.
As a cautionary measure, authorities declared a national animal health emergency on Monday to help prevent the disease's spread to other parts of Mexico or farther. The ministry has ordered vaccinations from Asia and is also developing their own drugs domestically to combat the flu.