On the meeting of the Authority for the fight against the bird flu, the President of the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority, Mr. Marian Avram has presented an information report related to the meeting of the Standing Committee on Food Chain and Animal Health which took place on Friday, in Brussels . The Romanian part has presented to the European experts an information report on the field evolution and the measures taken by the authorities to fight the bird flu.
“ The participants in this meeting have confirmed that the Romanian authorities have acted correctly and the virus diagnostic procedure complies with the European standard ”, the Government Spokesperson has stated.
The National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority requested technical and material aid to its European partners, Mrs. Oana Marinescu has stated. The technical assistance consists in the support provided by some teams of European specialists, which would participate in the setting up of some crisis cells at county level.
Regarding the material aid, the Romanian part requested laboratory kits, mobile incinerators and disinfection stations.
The Government Spokesperson has stated that the Romanian part's requests will be analyzed by European experts. “ The conclusion of the meeting was that our European partners are content with the presented materials and the measures decided by the authorities to fight the virus ”, Mrs. Oana Marinescu has stated.
For correct and direct information of the European experts, Prime Minister has requested the ANSVSA President to go regularly to Brussels to present the situation in the field and the measures taken by the authorities. Also, Romania will be represented to a conference on the bird flu and flu pandemic theme, a meeting which takes place today and tomorrow in Vienna .
ANSVSA, consolidated further to an internal audit
On today's meeting of the Authority for the fight against the bird flu, Prime Minister Calin Popescu – Tariceanu has requested the ANSVSA to consolidate and reorganize, to hire supplementary personnel, the Government Spokesperson has stated. Mrs. Oana Marinescu has added that the ANSVSA President has explained that there will take place an internal audit which would identify the causes of the deficiencies in the Authority's activity.
Today, the Head of the Executive has requested the ANSVSA to start a professional training program with all vets, aiming at their perfectioning in the identification techniques and procedures related to the bird flu.
Also, Prime Minister Tariceanu has requested the Authority to carefully supervise any hearth of infection according to the calendar and not delay the introduction of sentinel chickens.
Working protocol among ANSVSA, Police and the Financial Guard
The Sanitary Veterinary Authority will sign a working protocol with the Police and the Financial Guard in order to check if the firms, in which controls have been made obey the activity cessation decisions. “ This working protocol aims at preventing the situations in which these firms continue to function illegally ”, the Government Spokesperson, Mrs. Oana Marinescu has stated.
The authorities continue the protocols
On 2-4th of June, the National Sanitary Veterinary Authority and the National Authority for Consumer's Protection made a series of controls to 623 firms: two producers, two packing companies, 26 importers, five butcher's shops, 501 trading companies and 87 warehouses, the Government Spokesperson has stated. There have been verified 3.191 tonnes of poultry meat and 739 kilos of bulk meat. Further to controls, a firm which was functioning without sanitary veterinary authorization has received activity ban order. There have been imposed 200 fines amounting to 1, 3 billions ROL, and an amount of 515 kilos of poultry meat was stopped from trading and confiscated, Mrs. Oana Marinescu has stated. Further to controls made to 26 importers, 12 sanctions were imposed, whose value amounts to 132 millions ROL. Also, the amount of 897 tonnes poultry meat was temporarily stopped from trading.
Other controls aimed at the trading of the poultry meat. On May 17- June 2nd, the County and Bucharest Sanitary Veterinary Directorates made 7461 controls, and the amount of 71.000 kilos poultry meat was confiscated. Also, there have been issued an ordinance on the activity cessation and two ordinances on the ban of the activity for the firms where deficiencies have been noticed.
The Ministry of Administration and Interior has informed that the criminal investigations on the Codlea hearth of bird flu infection have been extended. “ The number of investigated persons is 29, one more than last week. 90 policemen of 15 counties are involved in these investigations. Over 360 persons have been heard and there have been made verifications at 93 firms ”, Mrs. Oana Marinescu has stated. According to the information provided by MAI, 9 criminal cases are registered, on which criminal prosecution is ongoing.
The Government Spokesperson has added that activities on the investigation of the manner the disinfection contracts were concluded as well as controls related to the quality of the substances used are performed. On the finalization of investigations, the results of these controls will be made public, Mrs. Oana Marinescu has stated.
The number of hearths of bird flu infection has decreased
The evolution of the hearths of bird flu infection shows a descending trend, Mr. Adrian Tibu , Spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture has stated at the end of the meeting of the Authority for the fight against the bird flu. He has shown that there is a number of 125 hearths of bird flu infection, including the suspicion signaled in Clinceni , in Ilfov County . In 124 of these 125 hearths of infection, the poultry euthanasia action, the remaining incineration and the first disinfection took place.
Mr. Adrian Tibu has announced that the sentinel chicken placement action continues. “ There have been placed so far in 38 hearths of infection of 11 counties, plus the municipality of Bucharest , in districts 2 and 4. The sentinel chickens are healthy ”, the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture has stated.
Answering a question, Mrs. Oana Marinescu has stated that the European Commission's decision on the cessation of the poultry meat imports from Romania represents a procedure. The Spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture has underlined that Romania took the decision to cease the exports to EU countries.
On July, an EU experts team will pay a visit to Romania to analyze the possibility of lifting the ban six months earlier, the way the EU terms stipulate, Mrs. Oana Marinescu has further stated.
In two weeks, over 70 hearths of bird flu will be closed, according to the data presented by ANSVSA, and until the end of the month, about 100 hearths of infection will be closed, Mr. Adrian Tibu has stated. “ We try to close all hearths of infection until the arrival of international experts' team, because in this way, we can pass very quickly from poultry meat importer country to the exporter country status ”, Mr. Tibu has stated. |