Bird Flu: A recent article from ArmeniaNow

Remedy?: Villagers are killing off chickens to avoid bird flu
By Gayane Mkrtchyan and Marianna GrigoryanArmeniaNow reporters
There is a relative peace in 65-year old Echmiadzin resident Stepan Zohrabyan’s chicken coop. Six of his 8 hens have died. Stepan, aware of the persistent news about the spread of bird flu has decided to get rid of the threat in his own way.
“I have buried the hens in my garden, I don’t know what killed them, but I think now there is no threat anymore,” says Stepan. “If they wouldn’t die, I would kill them all the same, everyone does, everyone is afraid.”
Silva Galstyan, an expert of serum at the Veterinary Lab in Echmiadzin says every day they get alarming calls on dead hens and other birds in the town and its neighborhood.
“There are mainly histological illnesses. Birds are vaccinated against plague,” says Silva Galstyan. “People are afraid despite the control.”
With news of continued deaths and outbreak in neighboring Turkey, fear has also spread in Armenian settlements literally within flying distance of villages that have been infected in Turkey.
At present the government has allocated 50 million drams (about $100,000) for prevention measures against the bird flu; the World Bank is also going to give some $5 million for that purpose.
“There are no specialists of bird flu in Armenia,” says Artavazd Hakobyan, World Bank Armenian office Agriculture and Environment analyst. “We are going to cooperate with the specialists of the World Health Organization and the World Food Program.”
“During the last several months we have received information about high numbers of fallen birds in the neighboring countries neighboring Turkey; in some cases they were described like intoxications, in others like other infectious illnesses. But it should be characterized and confirmed in the UN Food and Agriculture and Animal Health International organization laboratories,” stated UN Food and Agriculture Organization expert Juan Labrot.
But while experts visit Armenia in the coming days and evaluate the existing situation, the local specialists assert Armenia is free of bird flu at the moment.
Despite this, the question of whether to use poultry and eggs, or not is the most frequently reiterated.
“Everybody says unambiguously there is no bird flu in Armenia,” says Anushavan Aghajanyan, senior advisor to the Minister of Agriculture. “But for unknown reasons some specialists advise to be careful and to wear gloves while cooking poultry. What’s the logic of this?”
Meanwhile Armenia’s major poultry producers have united in a committee that aims to provide consumers with “multidimensional” information about bird flu.
“Analyzing the existing situation, the committee believes, the forecasts of possible penetration and possible spread of bird flu in Armenia are exaggerated,” says the committee’s statement.
But taken into account that such statements do not help change the consumers’ opinion, the poultry producers have decided to take other steps.
For instance, in the last several days the heads of the poultry productions publicly consume in turn the poultry and eggs their farms produce, but, as the residents and the shopkeepers say, it does not change the situation either.
Talks of the danger have entered each home and hens in the bordering villages undergo slaughter.
Aghajanyan calls on the population to leave the hens alone and quit killing them.
“If case of necessity we will visit every single household and village ourselves. In case of danger we will exterminate birds ourselves,” he says.
But those who have hens do not want to lose them, and solve the problem their own way.
Marjanik Arakelyan, 45, opens the doors of her freezer. Inside is a frozen poultry.
“You see, we are afraid. I had 40 hens, but they speak of the bird flu so much that I decided to kill them and keep them frozen; we will eat it slowly. I will kill them all gradually,” says Marjanik, a resident in Arazap village.
Located on the bank of the River Arax, Arazap village in Armavir marz is bordering Turkey. The village is some 45 kilometers from Yerevan.
There is havoc among the villagers in Arazap and every single news from Turkey or concern expressed on TV has a lethal outcome for the hens. The villagers even gamble with hens as the stakes. The losers kill at least 2 or 3 hens and make harisa (a soup of chicken and grains) for the winners.
Nvard Mkhitaryan, 41, shows the cauldron on the oven where there is still harisa left from the previous day.
“My husband lost in the game so we killed two hens. What can we do? I have 25 hens and their fate is the same. It’s dangerous, everyone is afraid.”
Villager Hayk’s piece of land is surrounded by barbed wired; 500 meters over there is the River Arax and the Turkish villages of Alican and Evcilar on the other bank.
“As far as I know the threat for bird flu is mostly on the eastern side of Turkey,” says Hayk. “But who knows where will the curse come from. How do you know, maybe we also have it but they don’t tell us, the mafia in our country is so strong.”
Manvel Harutyunyan, the head of Arazap village administration, says with the spring time, when migratory birds fly back, the threat of the illness will grow.