The reports discussed by the National Committee for Combating Bird Flu in its meeting chaired by Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Ameen Abaza on 28/2/2008 mentioned that only one human bird flu case was detected since the beginning of the current year, and it is receiving treatment in Menya, as compared to 44 cases in 2007.

The reports stated that the birds infections in the farms started to decrease as 5 cases in the farms and 18 cases in the poultry house raising were detected, which means 83% of house raising and 17% of the farms.

Spokesman of the Committee Ambassador Ayman Al-Kaffas said at the press conference that during January and February 40 million birds were immunized to increase the total volume of immunized birds since July 2007 to 130 million birds equaling 87% of birds in Egypt.

Al-Kaffas added that as a result of increasing awareness of people concerning the danger of bird flu, so during February the Ministry of Agriculture received 297 reports and all the results are satisfactory.

Moreover, he said that 70 symposiums were held, and 5.1 million pamphlets were circulated to notify people in all governorates, and there is a website on the internet including information on the bird flu.

Al-Kaffas noted that the Committee decided in its meeting to continue in catching violations, killing infected birds, determining a hard fine reaching to LE 10.000 and closing violating farms and shops for a period of 6 months. He added that 18 farms were closed for 6 months during January and February. He also clarified that the number of notifications received by the Minister of Agriculture during January and February reached 35.000 ones.

As for farms of pigs which represent the main source of bird flu infection, Al-Kaffas confirmed that 9 locations outside the Greater Cairo were chosen to transport 12.000 farms including 140.000 heads of pigs to be far away from the housing complexes.