November 1, 2005

Ecuador's agriculture ministry says no bird flu cases found

No cases of bird flu have been found in Ecuador, and chicken in the country is safe for consumption, Ecuador's agriculture minister said Monday amid slumping domestic poultry sales and concerns about a mild strain detected in neighbouring Colombia.

Agriculture Minister Pablo Rizzo said that no cases of bird flu have been detected in the Andean nation which, along with Bolivia, Panama, Peru and Venezuela, temporarily halted poultry imports from neighbouring Colombia earlier this month.

Colombian authorities had said they detected a mild strain of bird flu on three farms, emphasising it wasn't the deadly H5N1 strain that has killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003.

Experts fear H5N1 could mutate to become a dangerous human virus.

"No avian influenza exists in the country, and you can consume chicken with no problems," Rizzo said, adding that the strain found in Colombia is not harmful to humans.

Even if it were the deadly strain, health experts say humans cannot contract the virus from eating properly cooked chicken and that most human cases of bird flu in Asia have been linked to direct physical contact with sick birds.