AFRICA - Growing concern for avian flu in Africa: the Republic of Congo bans poultry imports from countries at risk but the real threat is migrant birds from Eurasia which spend Winter in Africa

Rome (Fides Service)- Fear of bird flu is spreading in central Africa. In the Republic of Congo the authorities have banned imports of poultry from affected countries. The country imports poultry from Asia, Europe and South America for its population of 3 million. Meat is one of the countries main imports.
Congo’s population is 80% subsistence farmers. The local zoo-technical system is afflicted by infectious diseases with affect mainly poultry and to a minor degree pigs. In this context bird flu, even if it does not attack humans, would have devastating consequences including a drastic reduction of food.
Authorities in neighbour Democratic Congo are also worried about bird flu. “Precautions must be taken to avoid contagion. No outbreaks have been reported in our country. But Congo, like every other country, could be infected by migrant birds, Dr Florent Ngamuna Sumbey told the local Catholic news agency DIA in an interview.
Dr Ngamuna fears Africa will not be spared by the epidemic because it is the world’s greatest importer of meat and the world’s greater poultry market.
Bird flu is a concrete threat for east Africa. First of all because African countries have no means of preventing a pandemic, should it arise. The east because at least 270 different species of birds pass through here on their way from Eurasia to warmer Winter temperatures in South Africa and Namibia. Poultry are raised only in the open air in contact with all kinds of animals and with humans is continual. It is impossible to think of changing these ancestral customs destined often for the survival of small groups of people or poor villages in a next two months. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 25/10/2005 righe 35 parole 420)