Malaysia does not import any live animals or products from Shaoyang in China’s Hunan province where an outbreak of a highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 bird flu was reported, – AFP file photo
KUCHING: Malaysia does not import any live animals or products from Shaoyang in China’s Hunan province where an outbreak of a highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 bird flu was reported, said the Malaysian Veterinary Services Department (DVS).
Despite that, the Malaysian Veterinary Services Department said it will continue to monitor the situation and will be in touch with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) to find out the status of the situation from time to time.
Malaysia imports chicken cuttings from a chicken processing plant in Liaocheng, Shangdong, which is about 1,313 kilometres away from the scene of the outbreak.
The Malaysian Veterinary Services Department said that it regularly takes samples of the chicken cuttings to be tested for H5N1 disease and so far there has been no positive samples.
“Precautionary measures will be stepped up and samples will be taken from every consignment for testing,” it added.
Last Saturday, Reuters reported that China has an outbreak of H5N1 that occurred on a Shaoyang farm with 7,850 chickens, 4,500 of which have died of the bird flu.
The Chinese authorities have culled 17,828 poultry following the outbreak.