A senior official of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said that
the country is ready to deal with any bird flu emergency situation
after reports of an outbreak of the disease in neighboring Saudi
Arabia, local newspaper Gulf News reported on Monday.
All measures have been taken to ensure preparations to face the
worst situation in case of a bird flu outbreak in the UAE, said
Majid Al Mansoori, head of the Secretariat of the National
Committee for Emergency Response to Bird Flu.
Al Mansoori was quoted as saying that the readiness of the bird
flu plan devised by the committee was tested several times by
conducting drills and necessary amendments to the plan were made to
ensure coordination.
The plan includes surveillance measures as well as emergency
responses and quarantine areas have been identified as part of the
plan.
According to an official with the UAE bird flu emergency
response committee, the country had banned all poultry products
from Saudi Arabia when suspicious samples were detected among
products imported from the country several days before the
announcement of an outbreak of bird flu.
Saudi Arabia's Agriculture Ministry announced on Friday that it
had culled over 90,000 birds after deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu
was detected at some poultry farms, citing migratory birds as the
cause of outbreak.
(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2007)