According to a poll in the Morocco Times, 62% of Moroccans believe that the country will be hit by bird flu, 27% consider it possible, while only 9.8% say it will not happen. The High Commissioner for Water, Forest, and Anti-Desertification, Abdeladim El Hafi, however, said that Morocco is fully prepared to face any potential risk of avian flu.
After the disease reached some countries of the European Union (EU), and recently Nigeria and Egypt, Moroccans have become more concerned about any possible infection of the national poultry.
“Morocco is now on a state of surveillance,” El Hafi said in an interview with Arabic-language daily Assahra Al Maghribia.
“This concerns 40 different regions… which receive migrating birds.”
Last week, the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Sea Fisheries, Mohand Laenser, and the Minister of Health Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah assured that no case of avian flu has been registered so far in the Kingdom, drawing attention to the necessity of staying on high alert as to the deadly strain of avian flu, the H5N1 virus.
Earlier this month, the Health Minister took part in an Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) regional meeting in Tunis to tackle the global bird flu threat.
The five UMA member states considered the challenges imposed by the spread of the disease in the world, and looked into the ways to counter any possible appearance of the H5N1 virus in the region.
Morocco started a preventive policy against bird flu in early October, as the government worked out a national action plan to avert any potential risk of the disease, imposing stricter quarantine measures on poultry farms, border posts and slaughter houses.
The Moroccan authorities also banned the importation of poultry from avian-flu infected countries and activated the National Commission for the Monitoring of Avian Flu, overseen by the Prime Minister, Driss Jettou.
Set up in 2004, the commission was created to keep an eye on the development of the disease in the world, report on the situation in infected countries, and guarantee the protection of the country from the disease.
Morocco has been monitoring possible outbreaks of bird flu since the start of 2005, putting poultry farms and wild birds under the watchful eyes of the agriculture ministry's veterinary departments.
“The period of surveillance hangs on the state of avian flu in the regions hit by the disease,” El Hafi underlined.
“If there is a global mobilisation to fight bird flu in the places it generates from, by taking the necessary preventive measures, then we will have made a considerable step in eradicating the disease.
“But since it (avian flu) is still spreading in its original source and has not yet been stamped out, we will remain here (in Morocco) on high alert,” he concluded.
In December last year, doctors and officials from the health ministries of the five Arab Maghreb Union states convened in Rabat to elaborate policies and strategies to prevent any possible contamination by avian flu.
Last month, 33 countries and multilateral institutions met in Beijing, pledging USD 1.9 billion to fight the disease.
Until now, studies showed that there has been no human-to-human contamination.
Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
No comments:
Post a Comment