TIRANA, Nov. 23 – Albanian authorities have ordered a temporary ban on imports of poultry from bird flu affected countries and warned that the country is also endangered due to wildlife pilgrimage.
Agriculture ministry officials have called on farmers to immediately notify vet services in case of identifying dead poultry. The bird flu cases are returning to Europe after a decade this time in the form of H5N8 virus, which research suggests is not dangerous to humans and other mammals, such as cats and dogs.
Albanian authorities say they have imposed a ban on poultry imports from Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Switzerland and the Netherlands where local authorities have reported deaths in wild birds due to H5N8 avian influenza virus, also known as bird flu.
Outbreaks of avian influenza (AI) in poultry may raise global public health concerns due to their effect on poultry populations, their potential to cause serious disease in people, and their pandemic potential, experts say. Reports of highly pathogenic AI epidemics in poultry, such as A(H5N1), can seriously impact local and global economies and international trade. The majority of human cases of A(H5N8) infection have been associated with direct or indirect contact with infected live or dead poultry. There is no evidence that the disease can be spread to people through properly cooked food. Controlling the disease in animals is the first step in decreasing risks to humans.
Avian influenza is an infectious viral disease of birds (especially wild water fowl such as ducks and geese), often causing no apparent signs of illness. AI viruses can sometimes spread to domestic poultry and cause large-scale outbreaks of serious disease. Some of these AI viruses have also been reported to cross the species barrier and cause disease or subclinical infections in humans and other mammals.
