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UAE likely to ban import of poultry products from Egypt

"We will make recommendations to the Ministry of Environment and Water to suspend and ban importing poultry, poultry products, and hatched eggs from Egypt," Majid Al Mansouri, Secretary General of Environment Agency — Abu Dhabi and Secretary of the National Emergency Committee for following up the bird flu disease, told reporters after a meeting of the committee. The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) had earlier issued a decree in which it excluded the countries with reported cases of infection, such as Turkey and Romania.

Al Mansouri pointed out that they had contacted both the airline companies and the Customs Department on banning the entry of poultry products from these countries.

He said a new plan had been adopted to deal with any emergency situation. "The municipalities and the UAE armed forces will take part in it," he noted.

Responding to a Khaleej Times question, Al-Mansoury said that the Ministry of Economy had expected that the UAE would incur financial losses amounting to Dh25 billion in case of a global outbreak of the pandemic. Though the GCC countries coordinate among themselves to fight the disease, it is not up to the mark. However, a mechanism will be devised to confront the disease in case of an outbreak in any of the CGG countries, he explained.

"We gave a recommendation to the General Secretariat of the UAE Municipalities to close down poultry shops in the country for six months. Sale of ornamental birds, in the shops authorised to do so, will be prohibited. They will be allowed to sell only the pets," he confirmed.

Al Mansouri "We will receive during the period from 2006 till 2007 about 2 millions pills of the Tamiflu medicine." he said.

• UAE