The Ministry of Agriculture has announced that Albania has been hit by the bird flu and that has been confirmed by the analyses made by the reference laboratory of the Institute of Food Safety and Veterinary, which have shown the presence of avian influenza H5N8.
After Sunday’s announcement measures have been taken to limit the virus and the poultry where the H5N8 virus was found has been isolated. All citizens have been advised not to buy live birds without a veterinary certificate or in inappropriate conditions. Finally, advice is given for chicken meat to be cooked at high temperatures and eggs to be consumed cooked.
Allegations of the existence of bird flu have been made in the media for more than 10 days, while the authorities resolutely denied the existence of the virus.
The “Association for Consumer Protection and Local Producers” intends to address the special prosecution on serious crimes, SPAK for the investigation of officials who did not take action on this situation. “We timely denounced the problem of chicken death but were not heard,” the association said in a statement released on Sunday. “The Association for Consumer Protection and Local Producers has publicly denounced several times last days that the cases of dead chickens in Durres were a pure case of bird flu. These statements were based after consultations with the best veterinary specialists in the field as well as honored professors with whom our Association has been cooperating for a long time.”
Earlier, bird flu hit European Union countries such as Italy, Spain and Germany, killing millions of birds.
So far, there is no case of people being affected by bird flu, while the Ministry of Agriculture has reiterated the advice for more hygiene by washing hands.
The Institute of Food and Veterinary Safety in a press release stressed on Monday that there is no room for panic on the part of citizens. The director of the National Veterinary Authority, Tana Kika stated that all farms are being monitored and also clarified that quarantine has been established within a radius of 3 km. /Argumentum.al
