ABHA, 10 November 2005 — The farmer who reported the deaths of chickens on his Surat Ubaida farm in the Kingdom’s southern Asir region has criticized the Agricultural Ministry for a delay in identifying the disease that killed the birds, according to Al-Riyadh.
Abdullah Al-Rahila, the farmer, said the ministry officials had ruled out bird flu as the cause of the chickens’ deaths but had failed to identify the disease.
Al-Rahila and members of his family have undergone medical checkups and his farm has been sealed off following the deaths of the birds. He said he wanted to return home because schools would reopen soon; so far, he had not been able to go home because of the delay in determining the cause of the deaths on his farm.
Al-Rahila said the municipality had buried the dead chickens and killed the remaining birds to prevent any spread of disease.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health will launch a website to educate Saudis and expatriates on how to prevent an outbreak of bird flu in the Kingdom, Al-Eqtisadiah reported. Falah ibn Fahd, national coordinator of the healthy cities program at the ministry, said experts were doing final touches on the website. The site’s address is www.hcp.gov.sa/h5n1
