Re: Avian Flu,

Pat Gardiner wrote:
> Blaming foreigners for Britain's animal health disasters no longer
> carries any credibility, here or abroad.

http://www.cee-foodindustry.com/news/news-ng.asp?n=62138-russia-bird-flu-far
mers
Russia fights to control bird flu By Angela Drujinina

29/08/2005 - As the threat of bird flu casts a shadow over Europe,
CeeFoodIndustry.com’s Angela Drujinina takes a look at what is happening at
the forefront of the battle in Russia.

Bird flu, which has been raging in South East Asia for several months, has
now struck 45 Russian regions in the space of two months since first
appearing in Siberia.
The areas include Novosibirsk, Omsk, Kurgan, Tiumen, Chelyabinsk, Altay Kray
and Kalmyk Republic, according to the Supervision Service of Consumers
Rights.

Officially, a spokesperson for the Russian Federation's Ministry of
Exceptional Situations said on 21 August that no Russian bird had died from
bird flu. Media reports contradict this, however, quoting other government
sources that said the virus had killed 8,347 birds by 9 August.

Alexey Gordeev, Russia's minister of agriculture, has sought to calm fears
by saying that it is known the birds are coming from the south east. “The
situation is better now and the epidemics have been localised,” he said.

Gordeev said the main task at the moment was to prevent the disease from
spreading in battery farms.

The Ministry of Agriculture says it will use government reserve funds to
help the affected areas and is currently preparing a report on the problem
for prime minister Mikhail Fradkov.

But, current levels of compensation given to farmers in exchange for killing
affected birds have not been encouraging.

In Novosibirsk, one can receive RUR100 ($3) for one destroyed chicken,
RUR150 ($5) for one duck and RUR200 ($6.5) for one goose or turkey. A hen
that lays eggs brings about RUR6,000 in yearly income, say poultry farmers.
It is not serious to offer 100 roubles for it, they say. The compensation
for one goose is even less than the price of 1kg.

Some local media reports claim a few farmers in Siberia have been hiding
their chickens in the forests to prevent vets from taking them away.

Nevertheless, there are some involved in the situation in Russia who believe
the epidemic is clearing as birds blamed for bringing the disease migrate
onwards.

Worryingly for Europe, however, these bird are heading west, with many from
Siberia (Russia's bird flu epicenter) expected to hit the coasts of Britain
and France this autumn. The first cases were reported in Finland on Friday.

This is the main threat to both European populations and food processing
centers, though a European Union ban on poultry imports from Russia and
Kazakhstan and tighter customs laws are now in force on the borders.

Border guards confiscate even the food taken by the tourists. "We received
the order to check if somebody has, for instance, sandwiches with sausage.
We ask the tourists to throw them away," said Richard Rudy, spokesperson for
the Olshtina Customs Chamber.

Every day authorities fill tens of containers with confiscated products.
These containers are then taken to rubbish dumps for Polish cities and are
burnt. The fine for the illegally taking a sandwich over the border is
100-150 Polish Zloty ($40).

The Russian government has reacted to the EU's ban and stricter border
controls by voicing concerns it has about European food processing plants.

"In Europe there are big meat-processing factories and they have raw
materials from all over the world – even from South-Eastern Asia. We think
that the disease will come from there,” said Alexandr Golovteev, director of
the Kaliningrad Poultry farm.

The authorities have set up ‘sanitary zones' around all farms in
Kaliningrad, and all the roads coming to them from the borders are closed.


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