Despite measures to stop selling birds alive ordered by Minya Governor Major General Salah Eddin Zeyada after the first infection of bird flu in the governorate, Al-Masry Al-Youm has noted the ongoing circulation of the birds in markets and privately-owned stores.
Large amounts of birds are still being transported across governorates and bred in citizens’ houses, in light of absence of follow up on implementation of the governor’s decision.
Ragab Tawfiq, seller of birds, has a store in Deir Mowass in Minya. He says that no governmental authority ever contacted him since 2006 to inform him about return of the virus or supervise the selling of the birds.
“In 2006, when the virus first appeared, representatives from the health department called for closing the store. Since then, no one ever came back. I do not know if we should go on or stop,” he says while weighing a bird before selling it. “We try to clean the place all the time. However, either ministries of health or agriculture should advise us what to do with the birds.”
Mohamed Hassan, a man in his twenties, offered help to one of his friends by buying a large amount of birds from a farm in Dayrout and put them in cages. A third friend brought a motorcycle to carry the cages and wandered across cities of Malawy and Deir Mowass in order to sell the birds, in violation for the governor’s decision. “I have been working this way for five years. No one told me to stop working like this. After I heard of the disease, I started covering the cages to security personnel would not see them,” he says.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
