The Emergency Management Ministry of Ukraine, the sanitary and veterinary services and authorities of the Crimea feel sure that bird flue poses no danger to people. “We’ve been working hard for 4 days and nights. The sources of infection have been localized and the spread of bird flue stopped. People are no longer threatened by infection,” said Anatoly Burdiuhov, head of the Crimean government, during a meeting of officials in charge of all regions in Simferopol yesterday morning. Among those taking part in the meeting were Deputy Crimean Speaker Vasyl Kiselev, Emergency Management Minister of Ukraine Viktor Baloha, head of the Veterinary Department of Ukraine Petro Verbytsky, Chief Sanitary Inspector of Ukraine Maria Kroviakova, ranking officials and experts from all cities and districts of the peninsula. The experts agreed that the infection is not dangerous for the people. It was decided to ask President Viktor Yushchenko to cancel the first clause of his edict proclaiming an emergency situation on the peninsula. To date some 3,000 hens, ducks, and geese have perished in the contaminated areas. Collection centers for dead fowl have been set up in the villages of Crimean Prysivashia. The Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea has worked out a mechanism allowing to compensate owners of fowl that has to be exterminated. Under the emergency management ministry’s decree “On the Procedures of Compensations for Impounded Fowl while Combating the Emergency Situation” 12 commissions were established to supervise the impoundment of fowl and payments of compensations.
The suspicious loss of fowl in Crimean Prysivashia has been registered for almost two months, yet the health service determined its cause only recently as bird flu virus H5 which so far poses no threat to humans. This assumption, however, must be confirmed by tests at special European laboratories. People are keeping fingers crossed in the Crimea; so far no cases of the flue have been detected among people even after long contact with dead fowl.
According to the press service of the Chief Department of the Emergency Management Ministry, despite the efforts to prevent the spread of bird flue and explanations to the population, flue cases started being registered in the north of the Crimea at the end of November. In view of this the sanitary department in the course of investigations has made an initial diagnosis: pasteurellosis. Blood samples have been sent to the Central State Veterinary Laboratory in Kyiv. In the evening of Dec. 2, 2005, preliminary data was obtained to the effect that it is an epidemic of bird flue. Domestic and wild birds are being constantly monitored in the quarantine area and samples taken for lab tests.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine held a meeting on Dec. 3 to discuss measures to combat bird flue. The cabinet press service says these measures are being taken in keeping with the president’s edict envisaging initial measures to prevent and combat the flue. Strict control is enforced on special poultry farms (in closed mode) and on isolation of poultry on private farms. There is a government emergency management headquarters working round the clock and supervised personally by EM Minister Viktor Baloha. The commission adopted a resolution during a meeting, imposing quarantine restrictions on the following populated areas: vil. Nekrasivka (Sevetsky raion), vil. Izobilne and Omelianivka (Nyznehirsky raion), vil. Pushkino and Zavetoleninske (Dzhankoi raion). A 3 km protection zone and a 10 km wide surveillance zone round the nidi of infection were established. Quarantine and veterinary checkpoints are functioning on highways. Exportation of live fowl and commercial and incubatory eggs, also of meat from the quarantine areas and their sale are banned. Private farms and motor vehicles that are or have been in affected areas are disinfected.
The CD of the EMM of Ukraine in the Crimea reports that 130 officers of the interior ministry, 13 veterinary experts, 150 officers and men of the Crimean Territorial Command of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of the Interior were on the scene on the first day of taking quarantine measures. Officials of the Veterinary Service of the Central Office of the Ministry of the Interior of Ukraine arrived in the Crimea and the local militia are on special alert.
Sales of fowl and poultry products are temporarily banned all over the peninsula.
The special commissions set up as resolved by the State Emergency Epizootic Management Commission of the ARC Council of Ministers are inspecting the households of the above-mentioned villages to purchase fowl and subsequently dispose of it. The situation in the quarantine zone is under control and the populace is treating the activities of authorities and militia with understanding.
Chief Sanitary Inspector of the Crimea Maria Kroviakova says that no bird flue cases have been registered in Crimean Prysivashia in the past several days, which is proof that the nidi of infection are fully localized, and that the epidemic was not caused by a deliberate introduction of the virus (as alleged by some media) but by spontaneous contacts between domestic ducks and migrant birds on lakes and ponds. Viktor Baloha and Anatoly Burdiuhov stressed the responsibility of local authorities for a reliable localization of the infection, since if the Crimea settles the situation in several weeks there will be no threat to Crimean agriculture and resort areas, as the future resort season depends on how quickly the epidemic is eliminated.
