DUSHANBE
, January 19, Asia-Plus — No case of bird flu has been registered in
Tajikistan
so far, Tajik Head Veterinarian Mullojon Amirbekov announced at a news conference in
Dushanbe
on January 18.
“We have received reagents from
Russia
for carrying out diagnostic examinations and monitoring,” said Amirbekov, “Birds and eggs have been brought from nine districts of the republic for examination and they were tested negative for bird flu.”
Tajik chief veterinarian added that within the next few days, Tajik specialists would go to
Kazakhstan
for further confirmation of the results of those tests.
“To help prevent the spread of bird flu
Tajikistan
has already passed two resolutions banning imports of chickens and other birds and poultry products from ten countries, including
Kazakhstan
,
Russia
,
Moldova
,
Turkey
and
Romania
,” Amirbekov said. According to him, at present they are considering the possibility of temporally giving up import of poultry at all, «but this issue should be coordinated with other structures – customs services, health ministry and others.”
At present
Tajikistan
is exporting poultry and poultry products from the
United States
,
Canada
,
Brasilia
; there is also permission for export of eggs from
Iran
.
“We are currently preparing resolution banning sale of poultry products on the country’s markets,” Tajik head veterinarian said, adding that within the next few days, this resolution will be coordinated with the Ministry of Justice.
He also noted that they had purchased a bulk of disinfecting means, which would be distributed to the large poultry farms in the country.
“The work in this direction is ongoing and we have already prepared a letter to the government with proposal to taking other preventive measures,” Amirbekov concluded.
Meanwhile, donor countries meeting in
China
have pledged $1.9 billion to fight bird flu worldwide, much more than expected. The money includes more than $330 million from the
US
and more than $250 million from the European Union. The funds will be largely spent on health and vet services aiming to prevent the H5N1 virus mutating and spreading from human to human.
The World Bank had asked donors for $1.5 billion to fight the virus, which has killed at least 79 people, mainly in
Asia
, since 2003.
