UAE bans import of birds from Russia

The UAE yesterday banned the import of all live birds from Russia for fear of spreading bird flu in the country.

An official at the Animal Wealth Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries said all birds including poultry, domestic birds as well as hawks and falcons are banned from the UAE until Russia is cleared of avian influenza.

The number of birds being imported from Russia to the UAE is not known.

The official said: "Even if we are not importing any birds from the country the ban still stands. There is no time limit for the ban. It will be lifted when the country is free from the disease. The ban is also for any derivative products like meat and eggs."

According to South Asian public health scientists 60 people have died from bird flu since 2002, mainly in poultry farms in Thailand and Vietnam.

The outbreak began in Hong Kong in 1997 when six people died. The virus has been carried as far as western Siberia by migrating wild birds.

He said the Ministry is regularly updated on animal diseases all over the world through the World Organisation of Animal Health (OIE) to which the UAE has been a signatory since 1979.

To ensure transparency in the global animal disease situation, each member country has to report the animal diseases that it detects on its territory.

The OIE then disseminates the information to other countries, which can take the necessary preventive action.

This information also includes diseases transmittable to humans.

Russia is the latest country to be banned from exporting birds to the UAE following the previous ban from January 2004.

The Ministry had banned the import of poultry and birds from some Asian countries including Pakistan, Thailand and Indonesia.

Traders in the birds and animals Markets in Dubai and Sharjah said that 90 per cent of the live 'domestic or fancy' birds are imported from Pakistan.

These birds include: one-day-old coloured fancy chicken, domestic pigeons, ducklings, geese, turkey, rabbits, finches, squirrels, bulbuls, budgerigars (love birds) cockatoos, green parrots, etc.

Dr Martin Wyness, veterinary surgeon at the British Veterinary Centre in Abu Dhabi, had earlier said that although there was no reported case of human infection of bird virus so far in the UAE, live birds should not be imported from avian virus-affected countries.

Dr Wyness said that the UAE authorities are right to ban the import of poultry from areas of outbreak.

Wild fowl act as resistant carriers

Avian influenza (also known as bird flu) is a type of influenza virulent in birds. It was first identified in Italy in the early 1900s and is now known to exist worldwide.

It can be spread in the air and in manure. Wild fowl often act as resistant carriers, spreading it to more susceptible domestic stocks.

It can also be transmitted by contaminated feed, water, equipment and clothing; however, there is no evidence that the virus can survive in well cooked meat.