March 27, 2006

 

Jordan destroys poultry in 3-kilometre radius of bird flu site

 

 

Jordan has destroyed all poultry within a three-kilometre radius of a village where bird flu killed up to four domesticated turkeys north of the capital, an Agriculture Ministry official said Saturday (Mar 25).

 

Dr Faisal Awawdeh, assistant secretary-general for livestock at the ministry, said Jordan was taking stringent measures to combat bird flu in poultry after the first cases of the deadly H5N1 strain were found in birds Thursday.

 

Tests showed that up to four turkeys that died in the northern village of Kafranjeh, on the outskirts of Ajloun, were infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.

 

"We have destroyed all poultry within the first circle--a 3-kilometre radius--of where the virus was discovered. A second circle of 7-kilometres beyond the infection point is under severe control and surveillance," Awawdeh said in a phone interview.

 

Awawdeh said that no new cases had been discovered beyond the first ones. A lab in Italy authorised by the World Health Organization was doing additional testing to confirm the Ajloun cases, he said, but did not give the its name or location.

 

Meanwhile, the Amman municipality had closed its popular "Bird Garden" as precaution, while officials were vaccinating egg-laying chickens and monitoring poultry farms closely.

 

Jordan has not announced any human cases of the avian flu.

 

But as afflicted birds continue to appear across the region, countries that are free of the virus fear they will be next.

 

Saudi Arabia's Health Minister Hamed al-Manai voiced such concerns to journalists Saturday, but said the kingdom was taking stringent precautions to avoid an outbreak.

 

Saudi Arabia on Friday lengthened the list of countries from which it has banned imports of poultry products.

 

Jordan last week gave people living near the borders with Israel and the Palestinian territories, where bird cases have been discovered, a week to eat any fowl they were raising for household consumption, after which the birds would be culled.

 

Jordanian farmers have reported losses equivalent to US$1.4 million daily owing to a decline in the sale of poultry and eggs, according to Ali Assad, secretary-general for technical affairs in the Ministry of Health.

 

He said he expects losses to increase.

 

Jordan had earlier banned imports of poultry products and pet birds and allocated US$8.5 million to handle an outbreak. Most of that would go to vaccinating poultry and compensating owners of destroyed flocks.