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Z`bar relents on ban on poultry products
2007-02-24 07:40:28
By Issa Yussuf, Zanzibar
Zanzibar yesterday partially lifted a ban on poultry products from the mainland imposed one and half years ago following fear of the spread of bird flu.
`Poultry firms and local poultry keepers in the Isles will now be allowed to import parent stock and chickens from selected poultry firms in Mauritius and Dar es Salaam from next month following a thorough three-week study,` Zanzibar Avian and Human Influenza Steering Committee official Rahma Mshangama told journalists.
She said the committee, whose chairman is Chief Minister Shamsi Vuai Nahodha, had reviewed the situation and sanctioned a partial lift on the ban.
`Zanzibar is not affected by the dreaded disease but the committee has decided to continue with the ban on the importation of eggs and chicken meat, the only exceptions being Dar es Salaam and Mauritius,` she pointed out.
`We met on Tuesday to review the 2005 ban and concluded that bird flu remains a threat to this part of the world and may be more of a burden to us because we lack the well-equipped laboratories to be used when the disease breaks out,` she added.
Before the imposition of the ban, Zanzibar heavily depended on imported poultry products.
Poultry keepers and businesspeople in the Isles called on the Isles government to lift the ban on imported poultry products from the mainland some two weeks ago, arguing that no case of bird flu had been reported in the country.
They made the call at a meeting with government veterinary experts at which they discussed the likely effects of the ban.
The poultry keepers complained that they had received loans from banks and other financial institutions for running their poultry businesses and the ban had badly affected them, making loan repayment impossible.
`Most of us have failed to run the businesses and risk being taken to court by the lending institutions for not servicing our loans,` one said.
The meeting also heard complaints to the effect that the ban had touched off hikes in the prices of eggs and chicken meat, making life hard for many Zanzibar residents.
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