Azerbaijan, Baku, 12 March / Trend corr. S.Babayeva / The third monitoring planned to expose bird flu in Azerbaijan in 2008 was postponed, Yolchu Khanvali, a spokesperson from the State Veterinary Service at the Agriculture Ministry of Azerbaijan stated.
"The monitoring scheduled for 25 March was postponed due to the Novruz holiday and is now scheduled for 31 March," Khanvali said.
Monitoring will last a week. The results of the monitoring will be announced on 11 April.
Monitoring covers national parks in the Absheron Peninsula, including the coast line of the Caspian Sea, Davachi, Salyan, Agjabadi and Lankaran regions
The first bird flu preventative monitoring of 2008 discovered the virus. Laboratory tests were carried out on blood samples of 1,993 animals.
In 2007, the State Service held 12 monitoring exercises, and over 8,000 samples of wild birds and poultry were analyzed. Bird flu was not found in any of them.
A ban on hunting, the use and sale of wild birds in Azerbaijan which was imposed in autumn 2005 is still in force. All border check-points in the country are on medium security in order to prevent the spread of bird flu in the country.