Malaysia Veterinary Forum (Archive)

Dr. TanDY

Malaysia bans birds, eggs from Britain

Source: Business Today

Date: 9 April 2006

Malaysia has banned imports of birds and eggs from Britain after a wild swan found dead in a Scottish coastal village tested positive for the feared H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Mustapa Abdul Jalil, veterinary services department acting director-general said the ban would remain in place until British authorities declared the country free of the disease.

Malaysia mainly imported exotic birds from Britain, he said.

Britain became the 13th European Union country to report the deadliest form of avian flu in a wild bird following confirmation that the swan had been carrying H5N1, which has killed more than 100 people, mostly in Asia.

The swan -- the only infected bird found so far in Britain -- was discovered floating dead in the harbour of a Scottish village in early April.

Mustapa said there had been no new cases of bird flu in Malaysia.

"The Gombak district (just north of Kuala Lumpur) is no longer considered an H5N1 virus threat area," he said.

"But we will wait until May when we will do the third surveillance. If it is negative, we will declare the area free of the disease."

In the first outbreak in Malaysia in more than a year, H5N1 virus was detected in February in 40 free-range chickens in four villages in Gombak.

Nearly 60,000 birds were slaughtered while authorities launched a campaign to boost plummeting poultry sales.

Health officials believe that fighting cocks smuggled in from neighbouring countries could have been the source of the Kuala Lumpur outbreak.

Since then, the country has suffered five other outbreaks of the H5N1 virus among poultry in the northern states of Perak and Penang.

Neighbouring Singapore, the biggest market for Malaysian poultry, has suspended poultry and egg imports from central Selangor state, which surrounds the capital.

There have been no human deaths in Malaysia.

Dr csh · Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 425

It is interesting that Malaysia even bothered to ban Birds and eggs from Britain. How much birds and eggs did we import from britain last year? anybody knows? I'm just guessing but it probably was not a whole lot :)

Dr. TanDY · Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:44 am Post subject:

Dr csh wrote: It is interesting that Malaysia even bothered to ban Birds and eggs from Britain. How much birds and eggs did we import from britain last year? anybody knows? I'm just guessing but it probably was not a whole lot :)

Haha. That's a good one.

Dr. TanDY · Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:38 pm Post subject:

But perhaps it is also a good thing. The government is doing their every bit to protect our poultry industry.