With panic spreading among the public about bird flu, Saudi authorities confirmed Sunday that no person has been infected with the virus which has claimed at least seven lives in China since the beginning of 2009. The avian virus has not been detected in the country since January 2008, said Fahd Balghnaim, Minister of Agriculture. The Minister's comment came during a two-day workshop on fighting bird flu in Riyadh, Sunday, held to raise public awareness of bird flu and the role of the Ministry of Agriculture and other government agencies involved in combating it. The Ministry has taken the necessary precautions in case of a sudden outbreak, especially with at least 49 countries already affected by the virus, Balghnaim said. The 1,016 poultry projects in the Kingdom account for at least 65 percent of local consumption, said Saad Al-Majed, manager of the Riyadh Agriculture Department. The Kingdom terminated the virus in less than three months when it broke out; a record time, he said. Early detection of the virus in affected areas in the central region of the Kingdom helped to combat the disease before it spread across the country, he said. The Ministry of Agriculture compensated the owners whose poultry farms had to be destroyed. The government culled over 50,000 birds at one poultry farm in Kharj near the capital of Riyadh in November 2007, when the birds were found to have the deadly strain of avian flu. In March 2007, the government said the deadly strain of bird flu had been discovered in peacocks, turkeys, ostriches and parrots at a house in the eastern region of the Kingdom and that an unspecified number of birds in the area had been culled. In February 2007, the government lifted bans going back to 2004 on poultry imports from 42 countries. Bird flu was reported as having affected several falcons in the Kingdom in 2006. During the workshop, the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development (NCWCD) said that it is closely monitoring the migration of birds across the Kingdom, and is checking them for possible infection. There is a strict prohibition on bird hunting to avoid the risk of spreading the virus, said Prince Bandar Bin Saud Bin Muhammad, general secretary of the NCWCD.
