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Bird flu fears hit Kurdistan & Iraq
8.12.2005
By Duraid Salman in Baghdad (ICR No. 155, 07-Dec-05)
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While there has been no
outbreak of the deadly disease, an import ban is
driving up the price of locally-raised poultry.
Although Iraq has not recorded cases of bird flu, a
health scare is already driving up the price of
other kinds of meat.
The Iraqi government is attempting to prevent an
outbreak of avian flu by banning poultry imports
from at least 20 countries, including neighbours
such as Kuwait and Turkey which have reported cases
over the last few months.
The ministry of agriculture reported that in
October, a dead bird in Erbil in Kurdistan (northern
Iraq) proved not to have the deadly H5 strain. Tests
run by the World Health Organisation found the
carcase was infected with the H9 virus, which cannot
be passed to humans.
But that has not eased the fears of many Iraqis, who
are increasingly choosing not to eat poultry.
"We refuse to have chicken, even if it means we are
forced to eat only bread and onion," said Samar
Talib, a 37-year-old housewife in Baghdad who
ordered her husband to stop buying poultry because
of bird flu fears.
Those who still want to eat chicken are having to
pay more for it since the import ban, said Hazim
Sultan, 41, who owns a butcher’s shop in the Jamila
meat market in eastern Baghdad. Sellers argue that
their meat is safer than imports anyway, and have
increased prices.
The government no longer controls market prices, and
sellers at the Jamila market reported that the
average price of chicken has risen from about 2,500
Iraqi dinars (a little under two dollars) per
kilogram to 4,000 dinars since the bird flu scare.
Traders also report rising demand – and prices - for
lamb and vegetables.
"This disease is adding to the suffering of the
Iraqi people," said Saad Younis, a 35-year-old
construction worker. "Many people on low incomes
have been greatly affected [by the scare] as meat
prices are going up and people are afraid to eat
chicken."
Sulaimaniyah in Kurdistan (northeastern Iraq) is
ordering live poultry markets to close for fear of a
bird flu outbreak, the newspaper Kurdistani Nwe
reported last week.
The government's announcement that thousands of
birds have been infected with other viruses has not
helped build public confidence. The agriculture
ministry has reported that approximately 6,300 birds
were infected with Exotic Newcastle Disease and
another virus in the Nineveh, Baghdad and Babil
provinces between August and November 2005. The
strains, common in developing nations, are not
necessarily fatal for poultry and cannot be passed
on to humans, agriculture ministry and veterinary
experts maintained.
In addition, 691,000 chickens were infected with the
coccidia parasite in Nineveh province, and another
641,500 had chronic respiratory disease in Karbala,
the ministry reported.
Isam al-Rubaii, the 41-year-old owner of a poultry
farm in Baghdad, said his job was "no longer worth
the effort" due to the falling demand for poultry.
Minister of agriculture Ali Hussein al-Bahadli said
no poultry or eggs had been infected with bird flu,
but encouraged Iraqis to buy only
domestically-produced meat. Bahadli promised to
slaughter any birds and compensate owners if they
tested positive for the deadly virus.
The government has set up a committee of veterinary
and health experts to watch for avian flu outbreaks.
Muhammad Sharif, director of the agriculture
ministry's veterinary department, cautioned that the
disease is difficult to stop because it is
transnational.
"It holds no passport and will arrive whenever it
likes," he said.
Bahadli also admitted that the government cannot be
certain that bird flu will be kept out, since
controls on its long national borders are still
loose.
"Large-sized troublemakers [i.e. insurgents] cross
the border, and the state can't completely control
that," commented Rubaii. "How will it stop small
birds from scurrying over?"
Duraid Salman is an IWPR trainee journalist in
Baghdad.
www.iwpr.net
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