Algiers, November 27 (EFE).- The Algerian authorities announced this Sunday the availability of more than 20 million doses of vaccine to deal with avian flu after outbreaks of the disease appeared in several provinces of the country, the ministry announced of Agriculture.
In a press release quoted by the official APS agency, it was specified that to “reassure all operators in the egg and white meat production sector; the veterinary services of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have adopted all preventive health measures in to protect poultry stocks and have supplied more than 20 million doses of avian flu vaccine.”
The ministry recalled that “avian flu vaccination is only a supplement that cannot replace hygiene standards and good farm management (vaccination against other diseases: Marek, Newcastle), as well as all protective measures for flock of poultry”.
This is the first official reaction of the Algerian authorities to the detection of bird flu outbreaks, especially in the north-eastern provinces of the country.
According to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), an outbreak of “highly pathogenic” H5N1 was discovered last month in a poultry farm in the town of Medea, located 90 kilometers southwest of Algiers, forcing Algerian health authorities decimated 35,800 birds on a farm while another 1,700 were killed.
Last year, an outbreak of avian influenza “H5N8 virus which is not transmissible to humans” was detected in a poultry farm in the city of Ain Fakroun, in the Oum al Bouaghi region (north-eastern Algeria), causing more than 50,000 infected birds died while another 1,200 were culled. EFE extension
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