The Web Sri Lanka In Focus

Thursday 24 January 2008

Bird flu: Sri Lanka bans poultry from India

Sri Lanka has banned import of chicken from India in the wake of outbreak of bird flu in West Bengal.

"Sri Lanka has banned chicken imports from India with immediate effect as bird flu has been reported from many parts of that country," Animal Products and Health acting Director General K M T Kendaragama said.

Sri Lanka imports egg-powder and one-day old chicks from India.

In a statement, Kendaragama said though the Department of Animal Products and Health has banned the import of chicks a few months ago after India declared that there was bird flu in the country, Sri Lanka relaxed the ban after the threat disappeared.

"We had to slap a ban once again after the bird flu epidemic broke out again in India in the last few weeks," Kendaragama said.

Sri Lanka has also banned the import of chicken products from certain European countries from where bird flu has been reported, he said

Source: sify.com