20/05/2010
Nablus – Ma'an – The Tulkarem governorate in the northern West Bank was cleared of bird flu on Thursday, after the Palestinian Authority Agriculture Ministry received results conducted in Israeli medical laboratories, an official said.
Azzam Tbeleh, the ministry's under-secretary, said the Israeli Veterinary Services officially handed over the final results, clearing the Bal'a area in Tulkarem.
The official said that despite being given the all clear, the Palestinian Veterinary Services would endeavour to ensure that Tulkarem was free of avian flu.
At least 750,000 chickens were slaughtered and destroyed in the Tulkarem-area town of Bal'a, as a heavy Palestinian police presence surrounded the area, ensuring area birds diagnosed with bird flu were not transported out.
The village, which exports between 4,000 to 5,000 cartons of eggs per day to areas in the West Bank, and hundreds of pounds of meat, had its poultry stock wiped out following the discovery of bird flu by PA officials from the Ministry of Agriculture.
No human cases of the influenza virus have yet been reported, but officials said they are monitoring the area heavily to ensure proper containment mechanisms are put in place.
Municipal council leader Bal’a Ahmad Mansur said the situation in the town was dire. "Tension and anxiety are prevailing among the farmers," he said, estimating losses in the millions of shekels. "At least 40% of the town's economy is in chickens," he added.
Mansur urged government officials to help compensate farmers before the town was left destitute.
Municipal official Sa’eed Hanun said doctors were monitoring local clinics carefully, and distributing information on symptoms of bird flu in humans to farming families. He said treatments would be available immediately if a human case is found.
As for the farms, he said, they will be sterilized, "and the birds will be buried in a healthy and safe way."
When a farmer noticed symptoms in several chicks, he called in officials to test the birds. "The chicks were only 8 days old when we learned that they were in fact positive for the virus," Hanun said.
From that point on, "We were obliged to declare a state of emergency in Bal'a, imposing a health quarantine on all of the area and taking preventive procedures so we don't see the spread of the virus to other areas," he explained.
Nablus – Ma'an – The Tulkarem governorate in the northern West Bank was cleared of bird flu on Thursday, after the Palestinian Authority Agriculture Ministry received results conducted in Israeli medical laboratories, an official said.
Azzam Tbeleh, the ministry's under-secretary, said the Israeli Veterinary Services officially handed over the final results, clearing the Bal'a area in Tulkarem.
The official said that despite being given the all clear, the Palestinian Veterinary Services would endeavour to ensure that Tulkarem was free of avian flu.
At least 750,000 chickens were slaughtered and destroyed in the Tulkarem-area town of Bal'a, as a heavy Palestinian police presence surrounded the area, ensuring area birds diagnosed with bird flu were not transported out.
The village, which exports between 4,000 to 5,000 cartons of eggs per day to areas in the West Bank, and hundreds of pounds of meat, had its poultry stock wiped out following the discovery of bird flu by PA officials from the Ministry of Agriculture.
No human cases of the influenza virus have yet been reported, but officials said they are monitoring the area heavily to ensure proper containment mechanisms are put in place.
Municipal council leader Bal’a Ahmad Mansur said the situation in the town was dire. "Tension and anxiety are prevailing among the farmers," he said, estimating losses in the millions of shekels. "At least 40% of the town's economy is in chickens," he added.
Mansur urged government officials to help compensate farmers before the town was left destitute.
Municipal official Sa’eed Hanun said doctors were monitoring local clinics carefully, and distributing information on symptoms of bird flu in humans to farming families. He said treatments would be available immediately if a human case is found.
As for the farms, he said, they will be sterilized, "and the birds will be buried in a healthy and safe way."
When a farmer noticed symptoms in several chicks, he called in officials to test the birds. "The chicks were only 8 days old when we learned that they were in fact positive for the virus," Hanun said.
From that point on, "We were obliged to declare a state of emergency in Bal'a, imposing a health quarantine on all of the area and taking preventive procedures so we don't see the spread of the virus to other areas," he explained.
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