http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=2124
?I wouldn?t be surprised if one or two humans caught bird flu,? says Israeli health ministry director Prof. Avi Israeli testifying to Knesset committee Tuesday
DEBKAfile reports: Seven days before Israel?s general election, the army was called in to contain the spread of avian flu, in view of the Olmert government?s ineptitude and slow responses to the outbreak. A call line was finally set up for public questions: 03-6951541 or cellphone *3090. Since last Thursday, six turkey farms have been struck by H5N1, almost all in the south: Ain Hashlosha, Holit, Nahshonim, Sde Moshe and Sunday, Amioz and Nir Oz. Defense ministry and IDF personnel were mobilized to expedite the slaughter and interment of a million fowls infected or culled within a three-kilometer radius of the infected flocks and to decontaminate the coops. Enforcement of the isolation orders for infected farms has not been efficient and a shortage of manpower has slowed the interment of slaughtered birds. The agriculture ministry has shown little or no initiative in overcoming these problems. Poultry farmers up and down the country are furiously demanding the government proclaim they are the victims of a natural disaster.
Veterinary officials blame the government for begrudging the investment in stocks of vaccines to protect the poultry industry and contain the outbreak, like in France and Britain.
Poultry farming, one of Israel?s largest industries, is valued at over half a billion dollars a year plus another one billion in sales of chicken and turkey meat. Many kibbutzim and moshavim face ruin, as well as the food industries, like bakeries which use large quantities of eggs, from the bird flu blight.
?I wouldn?t be surprised if one or two humans caught bird flu,? says Israeli health ministry director Prof. Avi Israeli testifying to Knesset committee Tuesday
DEBKAfile reports: Seven days before Israel?s general election, the army was called in to contain the spread of avian flu, in view of the Olmert government?s ineptitude and slow responses to the outbreak. A call line was finally set up for public questions: 03-6951541 or cellphone *3090. Since last Thursday, six turkey farms have been struck by H5N1, almost all in the south: Ain Hashlosha, Holit, Nahshonim, Sde Moshe and Sunday, Amioz and Nir Oz. Defense ministry and IDF personnel were mobilized to expedite the slaughter and interment of a million fowls infected or culled within a three-kilometer radius of the infected flocks and to decontaminate the coops. Enforcement of the isolation orders for infected farms has not been efficient and a shortage of manpower has slowed the interment of slaughtered birds. The agriculture ministry has shown little or no initiative in overcoming these problems. Poultry farmers up and down the country are furiously demanding the government proclaim they are the victims of a natural disaster.
Veterinary officials blame the government for begrudging the investment in stocks of vaccines to protect the poultry industry and contain the outbreak, like in France and Britain.
Poultry farming, one of Israel?s largest industries, is valued at over half a billion dollars a year plus another one billion in sales of chicken and turkey meat. Many kibbutzim and moshavim face ruin, as well as the food industries, like bakeries which use large quantities of eggs, from the bird flu blight.