Myanmar bans poultry breeding in Yangon populated areas

Myanmar bans poultry breeding in Yangon populated areas
www.chinaview.cn 2009-01-19 19:01:03

YANGON, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar has banned breeding of chicken, quail and pig in populated areas in the former capital of Yangon as part of its preventive measures against bird flu, a local weekly reported Monday.

Quoting the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department (LBVD),the Weekly Eleven said, the ban covers that for commercial purpose as well as for home consumption.

Besides, the authorities are also carrying out check on live chickens in Yangon's markets if they carry H5N1 virus or not, the report said.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has stepped up tight bio-security against cross-border bird flu, banning poultry import from neighboring Bangladesh.

Bio-security check is also being carried out at the Maungtaw border point in prevention against mixing of home-breed poultry with migratory wild birds which are moving into Myanmar in the cold season especially at this time, other local report said.

The LBVD has called on the country's people to take preventive measures against cross-border bird flu, saying that the avian influenza was found occurring intermittently in neighboring countries in both the east and northwest and attributing the phenomena to have been caused by the migratory birds, carriers of deadly H5N1 virus from one place to another.

In April last year, the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) declared Myanmar as a bird-flu-free country three months after the country was proved that there was no residual bird flu virus remained over the period since January.

From February 2006 until the last in December 2007, there were numerous outbreaks of the avian influenza in Myanmar covering 25 townships of six states and divisions.

All of the occurrences were blamed for infecting from abroad especially that the virus was carried into the country by migratory birds from the cold regions in the world infecting local birds.

Despite the declaration as a bird-flu-free country, the Myanmar livestock authorities continued to call on the country's people to exercise a long-term precaution against the deadly H5N1 bird flu.