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Burma bird flu wipes chicken off the menu
<!--articleTools Top--> <date>March 19, 2006 - 2:06PM
</date>Burma's first bird flu outbreak has swept chickens from markets in this central city but in a country with a thriving black market, many know how to get their hands on illicit poultry.
While many shoppers and diners said they had been scared off eating chicken, others were undeterred by a ban on the sale and transport of poultry and eggs.
"I'm afraid of bird flu. I've removed chicken curry from our menu because I don't want my customers to get sick," said the owner of a popular restaurant in Mandalay, 700 kilometres north of Rangoon.
"Even if we serve chicken curry, nobody will eat it. Also we have not been able to buy chickens since the outbreak," said the 40-year-old owner who declined to be named.
A waitress at another restaurant said her eatery and several others in Mandalay were buying chickens illegally to meet customer demand.
"We have to find ways to buy chickens. We still serve chicken curry because of demand from customers," she said on condition she not be identified.
Burma, one of the world's most isolated and impoverished nations, reported the virus in chickens in Mandalay a week ago and immediately banned all trade in chicken, ducks and eggs here.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Authority has said that tests on samples of dead chickens from Burma confirmed the lethal H5N1 strain of the virus, which has killed about 100 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003.
In Rangoon, chickens were still being sold in markets but shoppers said prices which used to be prohibitive for ordinary people had dropped by nearly 30 per cent since bird flu erupted.
Even though international health experts say properly cooked poultry and eggs were safe, many people were opting for alternative foods.
"Chicken sellers are just sitting beside their trays full of chickens," said a woman at a market. "The price of chicken has fallen sharply and poor people are now buying it, saying they can afford to eat chicken. I feel sorry for them."
While the world learned about Burma's outbreak on Monday, its notoriously secretive military rulers maintained a news blackout inside the country until Thursday.
The government, which has been controlled by the military since 1962, once dismissed concerns that bird flu could break out in Burma, saying the country's mountainous borders were protection against the virus.
Now state television and radio broadcast daily bulletins about the disease, explaining that H5N1 might have been brought here by migratory birds or through illegal chicken imports.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/burma-bird-flu-wipes-chicken-off-the-menu/2006/03/19/1142703203417.html
<!--articleTools Top--> <date>March 19, 2006 - 2:06PM
</date>Burma's first bird flu outbreak has swept chickens from markets in this central city but in a country with a thriving black market, many know how to get their hands on illicit poultry.
While many shoppers and diners said they had been scared off eating chicken, others were undeterred by a ban on the sale and transport of poultry and eggs.
"I'm afraid of bird flu. I've removed chicken curry from our menu because I don't want my customers to get sick," said the owner of a popular restaurant in Mandalay, 700 kilometres north of Rangoon.
"Even if we serve chicken curry, nobody will eat it. Also we have not been able to buy chickens since the outbreak," said the 40-year-old owner who declined to be named.
A waitress at another restaurant said her eatery and several others in Mandalay were buying chickens illegally to meet customer demand.
"We have to find ways to buy chickens. We still serve chicken curry because of demand from customers," she said on condition she not be identified.
Burma, one of the world's most isolated and impoverished nations, reported the virus in chickens in Mandalay a week ago and immediately banned all trade in chicken, ducks and eggs here.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Authority has said that tests on samples of dead chickens from Burma confirmed the lethal H5N1 strain of the virus, which has killed about 100 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003.
In Rangoon, chickens were still being sold in markets but shoppers said prices which used to be prohibitive for ordinary people had dropped by nearly 30 per cent since bird flu erupted.
Even though international health experts say properly cooked poultry and eggs were safe, many people were opting for alternative foods.
"Chicken sellers are just sitting beside their trays full of chickens," said a woman at a market. "The price of chicken has fallen sharply and poor people are now buying it, saying they can afford to eat chicken. I feel sorry for them."
While the world learned about Burma's outbreak on Monday, its notoriously secretive military rulers maintained a news blackout inside the country until Thursday.
The government, which has been controlled by the military since 1962, once dismissed concerns that bird flu could break out in Burma, saying the country's mountainous borders were protection against the virus.
Now state television and radio broadcast daily bulletins about the disease, explaining that H5N1 might have been brought here by migratory birds or through illegal chicken imports.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/burma-bird-flu-wipes-chicken-off-the-menu/2006/03/19/1142703203417.html