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Michaela Muscat
With people becoming more fearful that the pandemic flu might hit Malta, inspectorates assigned to locality will be “observing the ducks found in various bays including Spinola, for any strange behaviour or deaths,” Mirielle Vella, chief veterinary officer, said.
A spokesperson for the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment told MaltaToday the ministry has been receiving over 200 phone calls a day from alarmed Maltese citizens. After the emergency response simulation exercise held last Friday, many were convinced the pandemic had started spreading in Malta.
Sources close to the ministry have informed this newspaper that as from Monday the European Commission intends to issue a directive banning all live decoys from being used in hunting or trapping. This comes as bad news for all those trappers who often use finches in cages to attract other birds.
The virus has in fact been spreading towards the west of Russia and Turkey, further into the heart of Europe. It was also revealed that a parrot that was part of a consignment from South America died in quarantine in Britain last Friday night. Authorities are concerned that the H5 virus, which has already caused havoc in parts of Asia, might mutate into a deadly human strain and result in the death of millions of people worldwide.
Ministry spokesperson Ray Bezzina however insisted that Malta “will not act unilaterally but will wait for European Union Commission directives.” He repeatedly assured this newspaper hunters have agreed to obey any hunting bans coming from the Commission if it was in the scope of protecting public health and safety.
The ministry has already been taking various steps to ensure that “every basic precaution ordered by the EU is being enforced, and more. Blood samples and swabs are taken every day to find out whether other birds have been mixing with the local ducks and poultry currently using local bays as their resting place. Faeces are also being inspected as this can help determine whether birds which are migrating are stopped by to rest in that area,” Bezzina said.
The simulation exercise was carried out to test the response of the authorities concerned to a potential outbreak of the bird flu. Bezzina said that each country was “in a race to prove that they were taking more precautions than other countries and this was creating more panic with the consequence that more pressure is exerted on already stretched resources.”
A three-kilometre stretch was sealed off as part of the exercise, after a member of the ministry made a hoax call to the Food and Veterinary division. The death of 500 dead chickens was reported so as to raise the false alarm, which would start the exercise.
Unfortunately, security appeared to be lacking during the exercise, since a photographer and a reporter from the The Times managed to get to within 50 meters of the supposedly infected farm – irrespective of the supposedly tight security being enforced by the police and the army.
The registration of all poultry found in households is a further measure to block any chance of a bird flu outbreak, although the veterinary division claims there is “no point in locking up chickens as this would create panic for nothing.”
mmuscat@mediatoday.com.mt
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