Jordan Times
Friday, March 24, 2006
Kingdom on maximum alert
By Mohammad Ghazal
AMMAN — The government on Thursday set a one-week
deadline for families who breed poultry in the Jordan Valley to get rid of the
birds, after which the authorities will start culling home-bred fowl in the
area.
The Kingdom declared that it was on maximum alert after the deadly H5N1 virus
was detected in Israel and the West Bank, Minister of Health Saeed Darwazeh said
in a statement received by The Jordan Times yesterday.
The bird flu strain that can be fatal to humans was found on Thursday in a
Jewish settlement in the West Bank, according to the Israeli agriculture
minister, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
A ministry official said the H5N1 strain was found in the Beqaot Settlement in
the Jordan Valley just across the river from the Kingdom, AFP reported.
A quarantine has been imposed on a farm in the settlement where some 20,000
chickens were being raised and the Palestinian agriculture ministry said it
would start culling chickens in a three-kilometre radius around the settlement
to try to prevent the infection spreading across the West Bank.
Following a meeting of the national committee tasked with taking precautions
against the avian flu yesterday, Darwazeh reiterated that the country was free
from bird flu.
However, he said that an outbreak of the virus in the Kingdom is expected at any
time.
The national committee decided to intensify inspection and monitoring in the
Jordan Valley, which the government labelled as one of the areas most vulnerable
to the disease.
The committee comprises personnel from the ministries of health, agriculture,
environment and municipal affairs, as well as representatives from the Royal
Medical Services, several associations and universities.
The committee also called on others in the Kingdom who raise poultry in their
homes to get rid of them.
The Associated Press cited Darwazeh as saying that he will make unannounced
visits to poultry farms in the Jordan Valley to inspect the precautions farmers
are taking against the virus.
"There is no fear of an avian flu outbreak in the country's poultry farms
because these farms are well-protected. However, the fear of an outbreak is more
possible in places were poultry are bred at home," Agriculture Ministry
Assistant Secretary General for Livestock Affairs Faisal Awawdeh said.
There are some 2,500 poultry farms in the country, according to the Ministry of
Agriculture.
The health minister and the head of the national committee called on families to
keep their children away from birds and not to come in direct contact with them.
Jordanian Veterinary Association President Abdul Fattah Kilani said the
committee decided to vaccinate poultry from certain farms located on the
country's border.
"Ostriches, ducks and poultry on farms in the border areas will be vaccinated,
especially the duck and ostrich farms in the Jordan Valley, as these farms are
open and therefore the most vulnerable," said Kilani.
Kilani said the possibility of birds contracting the disease will decrease if
they are vaccinated.
The committee also decided that a mock exercise would take place on Tuesday at a
farm in Mafraq Governorate to test the preparedness of the concerned authorities
in case of an outbreak of the disease.
The government has allocated JD10 million towards bird flu prevention
strategies.
The ministries of health and agriculture received JD5 million and JD1 million
respectively for their efforts.
The Health Ministry acquired 60,000 doses of Tamiflu, an antiviral drug used to
treat bird flu in humans.
Imports of chicken and poultry products, decorative feathers, and pet birds were
banned after avian flu spread in East Asia and Turkey.
In addition, the Agriculture Ministry formed teams to monitor poultry farms and
areas frequented by migratory birds. Stations were set up to observe the bird
population in the wetlands near the country's nine dams.
Meanwhile, the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature banned bird hunting
and set up an operations room tasked with collecting any reported infected or
dead birds.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu, its most aggressive form, has killed nearly 100
people worldwide, according to the WHO.
Millions of birds have been destroyed in an effort to mitigate the spread of the
disease, amounting to huge losses for farmers.
H5N1 is an avian influenza subtype with pandemic potential, since it may
ultimately adapt into a strain contagious among humans.