Guadalajara, Mexico – Around 3.8 million chickens have been slaughtered as part of the effort to contain a bird-flu outbreak in the western state of Jalisco, Mexico’s Senasica food safety agency said.

More than 9.3 million other birds remain under observation, the agency said.

The virus, which was first discovered on June 20th and thought to be contained to only 10 farms in the state, has now been discovered at 33 of the 253 Jalisco poultry farms inspected by Senasica. There are 82 facilities that were found to be free of bird flu, while “diagnostic processes continue” at 138 of the inspected farms.

Senasica said it has also begun to look at farms outside the two municipalities where the bird flu outbreak was detected.

The outbreak claimed 2.5 million chickens in the first three weeks and generated $50 million in losses, a representative of the Mexican poultry sector reported last week.

According to Senasica, three Mexican laboratories - Avimex, Iasa, and Ceva - are still in the process of making 80 million doses of vaccine intended for distribution by the end of July in the affected region.

Around 32,000 jobs could be lost if the virus is not immediately brought under control, according to Ricardo Estrada, president of the Poultry Farmers Association in Tepatitlan, Jalisco, one of the affected municipalities.