March 30, 2006

 

Jordan to destroy Israel turkey meat due to bird flu scare

 

 

The government has decided to destroy 50 tonnes of minced turkey from Israel after legislators threatened to impeach the minister of agriculture who sanctioned the importation from a country with bird flu, a ministry spokesman said Wednesday (Mar 29).

 

The spokesman said the turkey meat would be destroyed even though laboratory tests had proved it was free of H5N1, the deadly virus of bird flu.

 

The Cabinet took the decision late Tuesday after 28 legislators, including several pro-government lawmakers, signed a petition for a debate to impeach Agriculture Minister Akef al-Zubi, the spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

 

The speaker of parliament agreed to hold the debate Wednesday, but it did not take place because of a lack of quorum. Most legislators had gone on a summer recess.

 

Al-Zubi told reporters that a private Jordanian food factory ordered the minced turkey, which was to be used as a base for cold cuts, weeks before bird flu was detected in Israel. The meat entered Jordan two days before Israel announced it had bird flu.

Israel announced it had H5N1 on Mar 20, two days after it began culling hundreds of thousands of turkeys when the first indications of the disease emerged.

 

Al-Zubi told reporters he would not resign because "I didn't do anything wrong".

 

The case appeared to have provoked a fuss because the minister did not tell legislators that the meat entered Jordan before it was known that Israel had bird flu.

 

On Mar 24, Jordan announced that bird flu had been detected in turkeys raised in a backyard in Kafranjah village on the outskirts of Ajloun city, 47 miles north of the capital Amman.

 

Health authorities have since destroyed some 13,500 birds within a 1.9-mile radius of the village.

 

No further cases were reported and health officials said there was no human infection.