Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend S.Babayeva / The specialists of the State Veterinary Service of the Agriculture Ministry of Azerbaijan attended the seminar on fight against bird flu, the Ministry informs. Organized by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the seminar completed on 30 March in Tbilisi.
Attended by the specialists of FAO participating countries (more than 150), the key goal of the seminar was to discuss the measures on prevention of bird flu in each country, co-operation between the countries in this sphere, assistance by the international organizations, training of high-qualified staffs in this respect. According to the information of FAO, in 2006 the signs of the bird flu have been discovered in 53 countries and in 2007 in 17 countries.
The fight against the bird flu in Azerbaijan began in August 2005. According to the requirements and recommendation of the International Epizootic Bureau, 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 the virus has been detected. According to the order of the President of Azerbaijan, a State Commission on Prevention of Bird Flu in Azerbaijan and Co-ordination of Activities of All Organization in this sphere has been created. The State Commission has formed a monitoring group comprising of the 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. Up to now, monitoring group examined samples taken from more than 20.000 wild and domestic birds and has not discovered bird flu.
According to the official data of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan, the migration of the birds to Azerbaijan decreased by three times as compared with last year.