Cambodia to Check Poultry Shipped to Capital for Bird Flu Infection

2010-02-11 11:16:18 Xinhua Web Editor: Yang Yang

With the increased transport of poultry ahead of the upcoming Chinese New Year, the Ministry of Agriculture is setting up special checkpoints for poultry transported on the main roads into Phnom Penh in order to prevent any birds infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus from reaching the capital, local media reported on Thursday. Kao Phal, director of the ministry's department of animal health production, was quoted by The Cambodia Daily as saying that agriculture officials and officers from the Economic Police were deployed along National Road 1 on Wednesday and would be stationed on all main roads into the capital to check the influx of poultry in the days leading up to the Chinese New Year, which takes place this weekend. "We check the birds before we allow them to be transported to the markets, we do not test for bird flu, we just check the birds' sanitation and health," he said, adding the measure was part of a nationwide campaign to prevent the potential spread of the H5N1 avian influenza virus. "We called all the 24 provincial agriculture departments to the ministry recently to appeal to them to educate the villagers in each province" about the virus, kao Phal said. Lotfi Allal, chief technical advisor at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, was quoted as saying that in recent years the government has taken specific measures during major holidays to check poultry for H5N1. "The high risk periods are around these festivals. There is a lot of trade in animals, such as poultry, around this time. Always around this period we support the government with their public awareness campaigns," he said. Allal also said FAO and government officials were wrapping up their activities to control the recent H5N1 outbreak in Takeo province, as bird culling in a 1-km radius around the outbreak's epicenter had ceased, while investigations in a 5-km range were also completed. Earlier this month, more than 10,000 ducks have died and some 30,000 others are sick in the country's southern province of Takeo.