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RIGA, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Latvia is taking preventive measures ahead of a possible outbreak of the avian flu, as its neighbor country Lithuania has reported infected cases.
Maris Balodis, the head of the Latvian Food and Veterinary Service, said in an interview with LNT television on Monday that cases of avian flu have already been reported in the Lithuanian cities of Klaipeda and Kaunas and that it was quite possible that some infected water birds were already in Latvia but have yet to be detected.
According to Balodis, once avian flu is found in domestic birds, the affected farm will be quarantined and transportation of poultry products from the farm will be restricted for more than a month.
The Food and Veterinary Service is already conducting preventive inspections on bird keepers and poultry farmers to ensure that they are complying with the ban on letting their flocks outside from March 1 to June 1.
"People have to realize that they need to protect their flocks because the disease is contagious, with 100 percent mortality," Balodis said.
He said police would be asked to get involved in the inspections.
An outbreak of avian flu at a large poultry farm might mean huge losses for the national economy, he warned. "One such big poultry farm with approximately one million birds might cost the state around 5 to 6 million euros," Balodis said.
To keep avian flu at bay, Latvia's largest egg producer Balticovo is planning to spend 280,000 euros on sanitary containers that will be installed at the company's plants in several towns and cities to protect the company's 2.5 million egg laying hens and young fowl, Balticovo commercial director Toms Auskaps told Baltic News Service.
Putnu Fabrika Kekava (Kekava), Latvia's leading poultry meat producer, is planning to spend half a million euros on increased biosafety controls, the company's spokeswoman Maija Avota informed.
The infection has been spreading along the Baltic-White Sea migration route which crosses Latvia. Experts consider open fields and pastures to be the riskiest areas as thousands of migratory birds stop there on their journey south each year to rest and forage.
In previous years, avian flu affected birds mostly in Mediterranean countries, while the birds migrating on the Baltic-White Sea route stayed free of the disease, said Antra Stipniece, an ornithologist at the Institute of Biology of the University of Latvia. Enditem
