Chicken sales in Malaysia down after bird flu outbreak, official says
Gombak dah ada yang kena selsema burung ni!
Jaga-jaga!
2006/2/25
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP)
Malaysians are eating less chicken after a bird flu outbreak was reported last week, an official said Saturday, as authorities continued to cull birds in the affected area.
Daily sales have fallen by about 30 percent, or 300,000 chickens, Lee Chong Meng, a spokesman for the Selangor and Kuala Lumpur Poultry Traders' Association, said.
"We are suffering a drop of about three million ringgit (US$807,900; €678,600) in sales every day," Lee told The Associated Press.
"Malaysians should not worry about eating chicken as the bird flu outbreak is confined to a small area and there has been no spreading," he said.
The World Health Organization has also said that eating well-cooked chicken does not pose a risk of contracting bird flu.
Forty chickens died from the H5N1 virus last week in four villages outside Malaysia's main city, Kuala Lumpur _ the country's first bird flu cases in more than a year. No further infection has been reported since then.
A plan to cull birds within a 1-kilometer (0.6 mile) radius of the four villages was expected to be completed on Sunday.
As of early Saturday, 2,760 chickens, 130 ducks and 143 other birds have been culled and 1,171 eggs destroyed, Veterinary Services Department acting director general Mustapa Abdul Jalil told AP. Officials have said they expect to destroy about 3,500 birds in total.
Veterinary officials will then work outward up to a 10-kilomter (6.2 mile) radius, taking sample swabs from poultry, including free-range chickens, for tests.
"If we find any dead bird, we will immediately take it for a post-mortem," said Mustapa.
Ramlee Rahmat, director of the health ministry's disease control division, said two people isolated in a Kuala Lumpur hospital ward Thursday for showing flu symptoms were discharged late Friday after they tested negative for the H5N1 virus.
Eight others warded earlier for observation had been cleared, and there have been no new admissions, Ramlee said.
Bird flu in Malaysia was first detected in villages in the northeastern Kelantan state in August 2004, in fighting cocks smuggled from neighboring Thailand. No humans were infected. Malaysia declared itself free of bird flu in January 2005.
Jaga-jaga!
2006/2/25
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP)
Malaysians are eating less chicken after a bird flu outbreak was reported last week, an official said Saturday, as authorities continued to cull birds in the affected area.
Daily sales have fallen by about 30 percent, or 300,000 chickens, Lee Chong Meng, a spokesman for the Selangor and Kuala Lumpur Poultry Traders' Association, said.
"We are suffering a drop of about three million ringgit (US$807,900; €678,600) in sales every day," Lee told The Associated Press.
"Malaysians should not worry about eating chicken as the bird flu outbreak is confined to a small area and there has been no spreading," he said.
The World Health Organization has also said that eating well-cooked chicken does not pose a risk of contracting bird flu.
Forty chickens died from the H5N1 virus last week in four villages outside Malaysia's main city, Kuala Lumpur _ the country's first bird flu cases in more than a year. No further infection has been reported since then.
A plan to cull birds within a 1-kilometer (0.6 mile) radius of the four villages was expected to be completed on Sunday.
As of early Saturday, 2,760 chickens, 130 ducks and 143 other birds have been culled and 1,171 eggs destroyed, Veterinary Services Department acting director general Mustapa Abdul Jalil told AP. Officials have said they expect to destroy about 3,500 birds in total.
Veterinary officials will then work outward up to a 10-kilomter (6.2 mile) radius, taking sample swabs from poultry, including free-range chickens, for tests.
"If we find any dead bird, we will immediately take it for a post-mortem," said Mustapa.
Ramlee Rahmat, director of the health ministry's disease control division, said two people isolated in a Kuala Lumpur hospital ward Thursday for showing flu symptoms were discharged late Friday after they tested negative for the H5N1 virus.
Eight others warded earlier for observation had been cleared, and there have been no new admissions, Ramlee said.
Bird flu in Malaysia was first detected in villages in the northeastern Kelantan state in August 2004, in fighting cocks smuggled from neighboring Thailand. No humans were infected. Malaysia declared itself free of bird flu in January 2005.
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