Malaysians Urged Not To Worry Over H5N1 Death In China

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 5 (Bernama) -- The people need not worry about the latest case of Influenza A (H5N1) or better known as bird flu reported in China whereby a man died in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province due to the disease. Veterinary Services Department director-general Dr Abd Aziz Jamaluddin said this was because Malaysia did not import chicken from the province and on the other hand, only imported two chicken products namely chicken powder and pure chicken oil totalling 1.4 tonnes as at November last year. He said to manufacture the two products, several processes would have killed the virus if there were any. A total of 28,000 tonnes of boneless chicken imported from Shangdong Province in the republic were free of the H5N1 virus, he told reporters here on Thursday. Abd Aziz said all chicken and chicken products brought into the country had to undergo inspection procedures at the plant or slaughterhouse recognised by the government with the coordination of the department for all imports of the products. Although there were no cases of H5N1 detected in the country among humans or animals at the moment, he said precautionary actions would be taken following the case. He said this included issuing directives to the state enforcement divisions to carry out immediate investigation on any cases of bird deaths especially involving chicken, ducks and birdsas well as requiring commercial farms to report any extraordinary deaths of fowls exceeding three per cent a day. "We have activated our enforcement group throughout the country to monitor the probability of the disease occurring in unexpected areas such as free range chicken farms in villages and small slaughterhouses and bird shops," he said. Abd Aziz said the government had a network of diagnostic laboratories nationwide and research institutes which had the capability to deal with the virus. He said one simulation exercise to face the epidemic was carried out in September last year in Johor to improve employee preparedness from various agencies to face the eventuality of the disease surfacing. "However we needed information from members of the public to report extraordinary bird deaths to the nearest veterinary office or by calling 03-8870 2041 or senidng a facsimile to 03-8888 6472. In the meantime, he said a committee had been formed between the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries and Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) of China to deal with the problems of marketing bird nests from the country to the republic. "We have been requested by the Chinese government to form a protocol on bird nest importation and we have discussed with the Ministry of Health on the matter," said Abd Aziz. "The Ministry of Health has also established a standard with their counterparts in China and they would be making an announcement soon. The standard will then be handed over to us to be implemented," he told reporters here on Thursday. Abd Aziz said as soon as the standard was ready, all bird nest producers and processors in the country would be compelled to meet stipulated conditions. -- BERNAMA Malaysia