RIYADH, 2 April 2008 — A committee comprising members of the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Agriculture will disburse next week more than SR96 million in compensation to the owners of poultry farms in the Riyadh region, the Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday quoting an Agriculture Ministry statement.
More than 6.16 million meat and egg-laying chicken and 13,490 ostriches were culled in 27 farm projects, according to the ministry estimates.
The ministry assessed the loss to each farm with the help of a committee constituted jointly with the Finance Ministry and the offices of the governor and the mayor of Riyadh.
Poultry farmers suffered hurge losses after millions of birds were culled after the disease was first detected at a farm in Al-Kharj in November 2007. The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed more than 200 people worldwide since late 2003, was detected at one location in the Kingdom.
The World Health Organization, which closely monitored the bird flu outbreak in the Kingdom and the country’s readiness to fight bird flu, in a report praised the Saudi Ministry of Agriculture for “doing its best to prevent the spread of the virus from birds to humans.”
Saudi Arabia’s transparency in dealing with the disease was vital in “enabling the different UN organizations like WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to provide their services,” the WHO report said.
