Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Trinidad bans French poultry on bird flu fears
ALL live poultry and poultry products from a region in France have been temporarily banned from entering this country after a case of the deadly bird flu virus was confirmed in the European country.
The Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday that due to the recent confirmation of the presence of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza (bird flu) in a commercial poultry flock in the Ain region of France, a temporary ban has been placed on the importation of live birds, hatching eggs and unprocessed avian products from that area.
The restriction of the ban applies only to Ain and not the entire European nation, and is based on the containment measures implemented by France to restrict the spread of the disease to other regions of that country.
The Ministry stated that as part of its Avian Influenza Prevention Plan, it continues to monitor countries form which it imports poultry and poultry products for the disease’s presence or suspected presence.
Whenever there have been avian influenza outbreaks in countries with which Trinidad and Tobago trades, appropriate restrictions on imports from these countries have been instituted, the Ministry added.
The Ministry stated that additional protective measures include surveillance of farms by the Ministry’s Poultry Surveillance Unit, the adoption of various protocols developed from the experience of having dealt with the recent outbreak of Infectious Laryngo Tracheitis in 2003, and the inspection of all live birds and hatching eggs at the country’s ports of entry.
The Ministry also assured the public that it was monitoring the spread of bird flu.