The State Veterinary Service of the Azerbaijan Agriculture Service informed Trend that monitoring to prevent bird flu' in Azerbaijan, which was launched late last December, has been resumed since 8 January 2007.
The monitoring was ceased due to unfavorable weather conditions, but later it was considered expedient to continue it, the same source said.
The monitoring will be held by a special commission, which includes specialists of the Veterinary Service, as well as the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Health, the Institute of Zoology and the Hunters Society. The monitoring will be held in areas with a higher possibility of the bird flue outbreaks. It includes the Pirallahi Island, Absheron Peninsula, as well as Davachi, Salyan and Lankaran Districts and the national parks along the Caspian Sea coastline.
Laboratory analyses of blood samples taken from wild birds and poultry will be carried out during the monitoring which is to last until 12 January.
The results of the monitoring will be publicized a week of its completion.
All veterinary border services are conducting inspections to prevent the penetration of the virus into the Country. The ban on the hunting, the sale and the use of wild birds, as well as the import of poultry from countries where there has previously been cases of the bird flu' virus, is in force.