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SRI LANKA BANS POULTRY PRODUCTS FROM INDIA AS BIRD FLU IS REPORTED IN THE NORTH EASTERN STATE OF MANIPUR

By Walter Jayawardhana

Sri Lanka announced that it is banning all poultry imports from India as a precaution against avian flu following a serious outbreak of the disease in Manipur India.

“We are temporarily banning all poultry imports from India with effect from July 29,” said A.M.Baiz Deputy Minister of Livestock Development.

He said that this would mean no import licenses will be issued and the island nation was doing it as a precautionary measure. Sri Lanka has had no reported cases of H5N1 virus which causes the disease.

The steps were taken after the news was reported July 25 that the North Eastern Indian state of Manipur close to Bangladesh and Myanmar confirmed that hundreds of chicken earlier in July had died of the bird flu. The diseased birds were from a farm near the state capital Imphal . Chicken and other livestock, amounting to 1.6 million birds are being culled in the radius of five miles, the state government said.

Sri Lanka is also importing a large amount of maize as livestock feed from India and there is a possibility that maize imports also could be stopped for the same reasons that they could be contaminated by chicken excrement as the birds live in the fileds of maize, government sources said.
D.D.Wanasinghe President of the All Island Poultry Association said that the country’s Ministry of Health would also take a decision soon about the island’s imports of maize and soya since they could carry the disease.

Sri Lanka recently lifted the ban of poultry products from Australia and the United States and a ban imposed on British poultry products remains in force.
The island mainly imports the Indian birds for the manufacture of sausages at the processing plants.
There are 11 million to 12 million chicken are produced for an year in Sri Lanka.

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