Saturday, March 03, 2007
Malaysia not to use vaccine, still to cull birds to curb bird flu
KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 (KUNA)—Malaysia ruled out resorting to vaccine to contain the deadly H5 N1 virus in poultry and asserted it will keep on culling infected birds as the better option, proven affective in controlling the disease.
In remarks to television channels, Head of the Disease Control and Veterinary Biologics Unit, Veterinary Services Department, Dr. Kamarudin Mohamed Isa said on the sidelines of the ASEAN Workshop on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) Control and Eradication that countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam were compelled to vaccinate ducks.
Indonesia and Vietnam used vaccines because culling birds would cost more to compensate farmers, he said.
Indonesia alone has more than 300 million chicken and Vietnam has more than 70 million ducks and using the vaccine is considered a successful economic alternative to minimize the costs and compensations which would cost more than one billion Ringgit (RM), he added.
Malaysia however, is still culling poultry and compensating farmers due to the small number of infected birds, Dr. Kamarudin pointed out.
Malaysia is also constantly observing the situation and is carrying out awareness campaigns aimed at villagers regarding the disease and this has proved effective in curbing its spread, he said.
He also stressed on the importance of cooperation among the ASEAN member states to help neighbors in quelling the disease and minimizing risk of its spread to other countries.
Bird flu story source: Kuwait News Agency