Translation of the Article from Shargh Newspaper (February 15, 2006)
Avian Influenza in Anzali Lagoon
Social Desk: While the country’s Veterinary Organization officially announced in its statement No. 8 yesterday that cases of avian influenza had been observed in Anzali, the Minister of Health declared that initial tests on the birds that had died in the Anzali Lagoon were “suspicious.” The Minister of Health also urged citizens to refrain from hunting birds in the northern regions. He added that before the test results are finalized, the culling of poultry is being carried out within a 5-kilometer radius of the deceased birds in the Anzali Lagoon. Subsequent samples from the area have so far tested negative, but the necessary vaccines and medicines to combat the entry of avian influenza are available.
The Ministry of Health, meanwhile, released a statement via the Fars News Agency, offering advice to citizens and farmers regarding avian influenza. According to IRNA, the head of the Veterinary Organization insisted that the country was free of avian influenza. However, the official statement from the Veterinary Organization reads as follows:
“Following activities carried out within the surveillance system for avian influenza over the past five months, this serves to inform the public that, subsequent to reports in the last two weeks regarding fatalities in wildlife (135 swans at two locations in the Anzali Lagoon) and clinical and laboratory observations (both domestically and abroad), the presence of H5 influenza in the deceased swans of the said region has been confirmed by the International Reference Laboratory.
It is noted that despite all preventive measures to prevent the spread of the disease among native and industrial poultry and to ensure the safety of poultry products in the region, adherence to the following points is essential:
- Continued prohibition of hunting in all wildlife habitats.
- Keeping native poultry in enclosed conditions.
- Intensified biosecurity measures in all poultry farms.
- Prohibition of selling hunted birds and refraining from buying and consuming them.
- Prompt reporting of any unusual fatalities in migratory, traditional, or industrial poultry and cooperating with veterinary teams.
It is evident that the consumption of all poultry products (chicken and eggs) that are sold in the country in compliance with health guidelines and are under veterinary supervision poses no human health risk and is safe to consume.”
The above text is the full content of the eighth statement from the country’s Veterinary Organization regarding highly pathogenic avian influenza, which was released yesterday afternoon and officially announced the presence of the disease in Iran after months of doubt. The first statement from the Veterinary Organization was issued on September 2, in response to the disease’s presence in Russia and Kazakhstan. It had urged poultry farmers to adhere to strict health guidelines and report any unusual conditions to veterinary networks. Subsequent statements were released following the suspicious death of wildlife birds in the پلدشت area of the Aras River, the death of over one hundred thousand poultry at an egg-laying farm in Qazvin province, and the presence of the disease near Iran’s borders with Turkey and Iraq. In those statements, the country was confirmed to be free of avian influenza.
The Minister of Health announced suspicious cases before the official declaration, to prepare the ground for the statement. Yesterday, a few hours before the Veterinary Organization’s statement was released, Kamran Bagheri Lankarani told reporters that “we have not yet had any confirmed cases of avian influenza in the country and are still considered a clean country in this regard.” The Minister of Health and Medical Education added: “Currently, 3 or 4 deceased swans in the Anzali Lagoon, which are suspected of having the disease, have been identified and sent to the World Organisation for Animal Health reference laboratory for further testing, and the country is fully prepared to combat this disease.” He had noted that avian influenza would only turn into a crisis in the country if some people were to hunt wild birds in the northern regions. Lankarani clarified: “Until the test results for the deceased birds in Anzali are available, the culling of poultry is being carried out within a 5-kilometer radius, and if needed, the necessary vaccines and medicines to counter the potential entry of avian influenza are available in the country.”
For a long time, there had been speculation about the presence of the disease in Iran, but the Ministries of Health and Agriculture always denied its presence. Highly pathogenic avian influenza was first observed in Hong Kong in 1997 and was confined to Southeast Asia until mid-2005. Finally, the flu left its original home and traveled to Russia. The report of the disease’s presence in Russia marked the beginning of a new chapter in its spread, and at that time, experts announced that favorable conditions for its global spread had been created and that the world was on the verge of an avian influenza pandemic. The onset of cold weather in Russia and the beginning of bird migration to southern regions increased the likelihood of the disease’s presence in Iran, and murmurs about avian influenza in Iran began.
The flu traveled to Turkey and continued its movement west towards Greece and Romania. In the south, it also affected Iraq and Saudi Arabia. During this period, any death of birds, especially in the northern and western regions of the country, raised the possibility of the disease’s presence in the minds of experts and even the public. However, it was said that the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain had not yet been found in wild or domestic birds. With the disease moving eastward and coming close to the western borders, internal measures, which had previously been limited to meetings and planning, gradually became operational. The Influenza Headquarters, which included all relevant institutions, began its work. This headquarters pursued the rumor of the disease with particular sensitivity, to the extent that after a while, it requested all its members to refrain from making any statements about influenza and to communicate with the media only through the Ministers of Health and Agriculture.
The Veterinary Organization began implementing a culling plan two months earlier, despite significant shortages in human resources, facilities, and equipment. In this plan, approved by the Influenza Headquarters, it was decided that a 10-kilometer radius along the western borders of the country should be completely cleared of native poultry to reduce the contact of susceptible birds with the virus, which was more likely to be present in that region. Many of the organization’s staff members traversed the snowy, hard-to-reach heights of the western country in the hope of preventing the virus from entering. They completely cleared over 300 villages on the western borders of the country and culled more than 160,000 poultry. However, influenza flew over our borders and ended up in the Anzali Lagoon. The veterinary “reference” laboratory had previously identified the disease in samples taken from wild birds in the Anzali Lagoon, and for this reason, serum samples from the suspected swans were sent to the laboratory in Padua, Italy, for further testing. The positive result for the presence of the virus in the samples was sent to Iran yesterday afternoon.
Influenza will continue its spread, and Iran was not and will not be the first country to be affected by this disease. There are concerns about this disease in the global community, and it is said that there is a possibility of a global influenza pandemic. The World Health Organization has divided the stages of a pandemic into 6 parts, and the world is now on the third step. Avian influenza has so far killed fewer than one hundred people, and the concerns are mostly related to when the disease gains the ability to spread from human to human (it is currently only transmitted through direct contact with a bird). The presence of influenza in some countries has been more of an opportunity than a threat. After the disease appeared in Turkey, it expanded its veterinary facilities, created opportunities for using scientific advances in various parts of the country with the participation of international organizations, and moved in a way that led to a flood of aid from international bodies. We too can, away from the commotion, make transparent public information our top priority and remove the danger of influenza.
Experience has shown that in countries where influenza is reported, people refrain from eating chicken for several weeks, but gradually they come to terms with the situation and believe that cooking and eating chicken is safe. It seems that in Iran as well, the situation will return to normal after a few weeks.
Avian Influenza in Anzali Lagoon
Economics Desk, Leila Lotfi: About 10-12 days ago, the Veterinary Organization sent the necessary samples for final confirmation to the international reference laboratory to determine the reason for the death of several swans that began about two weeks ago in two areas of the Anzali Lagoon. The answer was received yesterday. Around noon yesterday, in response to the international reference laboratory, the Veterinary Organization concluded that the highly pathogenic avian influenza, which they had been trying to prevent for months, had entered the country. During this time, following its usual procedure, the organization began culling in the surrounding areas after observing suspicious fatalities. It is rumored that based on this, the organization cleared a 10-kilometer radius around the Anzali Lagoon and then paid the determined compensation.
- No quarantine has been imposed
“I deny a quarantine even within a one-kilometer radius of the Anzali Lagoon.” This was the response of Yousef Hosseinzadeh, the CEO of the Gilan Poultry Farmers Cooperative, to Shargh. In response to the discussion that the organization had imposed a quarantine and cleared a 10-kilometer radius of the Anzali Lagoon about two weeks ago after observing the deaths of several swans in two areas, he stated that the provincial Veterinary Organization had not even cleared a one-kilometer radius of the lagoon, let alone a 10-kilometer radius. According to him, if a 10-kilometer radius of the lagoon were quarantined, the cities of Anzali, Soume’eh Sara, Rasht, and other neighboring provinces of the Anzali Lagoon would be put under quarantine. If a 10-kilometer radius had been quarantined, at least 2 million poultry should have been culled by now. The monetary value of these poultry, from Hosseinzadeh’s point of view, is more than 3 billion rials, but the value of the equipment in these units, according to him, is certainly more than this amount, because each poultry unit has equipment worth 10,000 tomans. However, in the event of an outbreak of influenza in Gilan province, which is one of the largest poultry production centers, Hosseinzadeh says these units would suffer losses of more than 100 billion tomans. Currently, Gilan province has about 7.2 million broiler chickens and more than 900,000 breeding hens, which produce about 100 million chicks. Also, in this region, according to the CEO of the Gilan Poultry Farmers Cooperative, there are more than 54,000 grandparent chickens in poultry units.
