Channel NewsAsia - Friday, June
6
SINGAPORE: The Singapore Agri—Food and Veterinary Authority
(AVA) is keeping an eye on the situation following reports, out of
the United States, that Tyson Foods has begun culling 15,000
chickens that had been exposed to a mild strain of avian flu in
Arkansas.
An AVA spokesperson said Singapore imported 289 tonnes of Tyson
chicken products this year.
“We are monitoring the situation and are in close contact with
our counterparts,” he said. “Only chicken that are safe to eat and
free from bird flu are allowed to be imported into Singapore.”
News broke on Tuesday that the US meat company would cull the
chickens in north—west Arkansas that had been exposed to a mild
strain of bird flu, the H7N3. The company also said it will test
other flocks in the area for bird flu. Affected chickens will not
enter the food supply.
Director of the state’s Livestock and Poultry Commission, Mr Jon
Fitch, told the Associated Press the birds tested positive for
exposure to the H7N3 strain — not the H5N1 strain that ravaged
Asian poultry stocks in late 2003 and has killed 241 people
worldwide.
“There is absolutely no human health threat,” he said. “The
speculation at this point in time was that a large group of
Canadian geese made home on a pond very near this facility.”
Meanwhile, in central England, an outbreak of the H7 strain of
bird flu at a farm has been described by officials as “highly
pathogenic” — meaning the virus has a relatively high ability to
produce disease.
All the chickens on the farm have been slaughtered following
detection of the virus, which does not pose a high risk to humans,
AFP reported. Nevertheless, Japan announced it was suspending
imports of poultry from Britain. Singapore has already suspended
import of poultry from the UK. — TODAY/sh