Oman bans import of Saudi birds

Muscat: Oman's Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has decided to take a number of precautionary measures after monitoring the competent authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with regards to the cases of infection through bird flu at the Aziziyah market in Riyadh.

"We have stopped the licences of importing live birds and their products and eggs from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry announced.

The Ministry alerted the specialists of the veterinarians at the border ports in the Sultanate to tighten control and intensify veterinary quarantine procedures to monitor the Omani markets.

This is part of raising the degree of preparedness according to the emergency plan for the follow-up of bird flu in the clinics in all the provinces.

The ministry of Agriculture said: "there have been no human cases of bird flu, according to WHO reports, since the outbreak"