...

Monitoring Initial Results Confirm Absence of Bird Flu in Azerbaijan – State Veterinary Service

Business Materials 25 January 2008 19:26 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, 25 January / Trend corr S. Babayeva / The initial results of the monitoring confirmed absence of bird flu virus in Azerbaijan, the State Veterinary Service attached to the Azerbaijani Agriculture Ministry reported on 25 January.

"The first bird flu preventing monitoring of 2008 was completed today. Laboratory analyses of wild bird and poultry samples will take a week," a source at the Veterinary Service said. Over 2,000 poultry samples and over 15 samples of wild bird samples were taken.

The results of the monitoring will be publicized on 1 February.

The monitoring is being held by a special commission including employees of the Veterinary Service, the Health Ministry, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, and the Hunters' Association.

The monitoring covers the national parks in the Absheron Peninsula, including the coastal line of the Caspian Sea, Davachi, Salyan, Agjabadi and Lankaran regions.

In 2007, the State Service held 12 monitoring exercises, and over 8,000 samples of wild birds and poultry were researched. Bird flu was not found in any of them.

The ban on hunting, use and sale of wild birds in Azerbaijan which was imposed in autumn 2005 still keeps force. All border check-points in the country work with the medium security in order to prevent spread of bird flu in the country.

According to the World Organization for Animal Health, in 2003-2007 bird flu virus was revealed in the poultry farms of 61 countries. According to the World Health Organization, in that period 213 death cases were registered.

Latest

Latest