Bird Flu Fears Hurt Kyrgyzstan's Industry

BISHKEK - Apr 19/06 - IRIN -- Consumers are staying away from poultry products in Kyrgyzstan following reported cases of bird flu in neighboring Kazakhstan and China, a move that is having a devastating impact on local farmers and vendors.

"We've had to lower the prices after the bad news," said Gusyuna Aitbaeva, who works in the central Osh market in the capital Bishkek. "Demand has dropped and there has definitely been a change in the type of customers we are seeing. People with low income who were too poor to buy chicken before are now buying, while middle class and wealthy families are simply staying away."

Consumers are shunning even eggs, with a decline in demand likely to continue, vendors complain.

"We used to send out 200 birds to the supermarkets each day. Now we barely send 15 and we have stopped delivering eggs. Nobody wants to buy them," Tatyana Ivanova, an accountant at one local poultry company, lamented.

The hype created by the media annoys local farmers, while some believe there is no threat at all. "In any case, we are not going to slaughter our chickens," Valeriy, one owner of a small poultry farm near Bishkek, told IRIN.

Of the 184 cases of bird flu reported in humans in China, 10 people died, while no human cases have been reported in Kazakhstan - despite a large number of birds dying last year.

Some complained that the plummeting trade was already having an impact on their livelihoods. "We live off selling milk, eggs and poultry meat," Nataliya Evdokimova, a local vendor in Bishkek, said. "If something happens to my chickens, I do not know what I will do."

But while no single case of the disease has been detected in the former Soviet republic, some people wonder out loud whether the government has the capacity to detect the infection.

"We examine birds simply by inspecting them with our eyes," Aitpai Mashrapov, chief veterinarian responsible for the sanitary inspection of all meat products at the Osh bazaar, remarked. "We do not have any sophisticated equipment to detect bird flu," he said, claiming that all the meat entering the market was safe to consume.

Meanwhile, the government has taken a number of measures to prevent a possible outbreak. Bird hunting has been banned, while veterinarians are calling on poultry owners to keep their animals inside fenced yards. Other measures include prevention of any contact of domestic fowl in farms with wild birds, along with providing safety equipment to farm workers.

Also, the government has banned the transit and export of poultry products from areas described as risky, a move deemed scandalous by some. In one case, about 30 containers with poultry had been awaiting customs clearance for three months.

Adakhan Madumarov, deputy prime minister, reportedly said that he doubted that the containers came from the US and Brazil, as the owners claimed.

"Who will guarantee it was not repacked in Turkey, China or Kazakhstan [countries where bird flu cases have been reported] on its way?" one official, scrupulously reviewing the containers' documents, asked.

According to experts, the northern Chui Valley and Issyk Kul province were particularly at risk given thousands of small ponds and lakes found in the area hosting migrating birds.

Talantbek Uzakbekov, Director of the National Veterinary Service, said that the first task now was to prepare vet specialists and the public for a potential outbreak.

"We are explaining to personnel at all levels about the first measures to be taken as soon as bird flu has been detected. If we find a suspicious dead bird we will have to send it to Russia, the diagnosis will be available in 10 or 15 days," Uzakbekov explained.

"Until then, we will have to completely quarantine the area where the virus was detected. And if a diagnosis is confirmed, we will take all the birds from the zone and cull them. In order to prevent the local population from hiding birds, we are developing a compensation mechanism as well," he added.

The World Bank has approved some US $6.4 million to develop and implement a national plan on the prevention of bird flu in Kyrgyzstan, making it the first country in the former Soviet Union and the second in the world to receive aid on bird flu prevention.

"It's not because Kyrgyzstan is under the most threat, simply the government was eager to prepare the country for the pandemic," Asel Sargaldakova, a World Bank health specialist, clarified, explaining that the money would be spent in the health sector and in agriculture.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the government have jointly allocated funds for a project to control bird flu and prepare for a possible pandemic.

Without these funds, the country will not be able to effectively respond to the virus, according to Zahifa Omorbekova, Director of the Department of Agricultural Projects at the Ministry of Agriculture. "We are not ready to identify the virus in our labs, we neither have equipment nor the specialists," she warned.

The project is aimed at mitigating the risk to people's health and for the poultry industry, and has three main components - people's health, animal's health and an information campaign. Over $24,000 is earmarked for the compensation mechanism if culling is necessary on the ground.

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006

Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)

Copyright (c) 2006 UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs