The State Veterinary Service of the Azerbaijan Agriculture Service informed Trend the results of a monitoring exercise вЂ" which ended on 19th January - to prevent bird flu' in Azerbaijan, will be publicized in late January.
The date of the next monitoring exercise is still to be set. Laboratory analyses of blood samples taken from wild birds and poultry were carried out during the 8th monitoring project, the first of 2007. Laboratory results will be published on January 29th.
The monitoring exercise is carried out by a special commission. The commission is made up of specialist representatives from the Veterinary Service, Ecology, Natural Resources and Health Ministries, as well as representatives from the Hunter Community. The monitoring is held at territories where there is a likelihood of temporary migrant birds nesting, namely the Absheron peninsula, the Island of Pirallahi, Davachi, Salyan, Aghjabadi, Lankaran, as well as in the territories of National Parks parallel to the Caspian coast.
Since April 2006, there have been no cases of the bird flu' virus in the country among birds of passage. However, to prevent the infiltration of the bird flu' virus into the country, all frontier veterinary points are operating on medium security, the prohibition on hunting, sale and eating of wild birds in the country still remains in force, as well as the import of poultry and poultry food into the country from those countries where cases of the virus have been detected.