The Supreme National Committee for Combating Bird Flu decided on Wednesday 2/1/2008 that all the birds and farm wastes proven infected with the bird flu would be destroyed.

During a meeting in the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, the committee also decided to continue banning poultry raising in residences.

All the farms that do not abide by the measures set previously to protect the birds will be shut down for six months, the committee said.

The three-hour meeting attended by Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza, Health Minister Hatem el-Gabali and a number of governors covered also other measures to curb the spread of the avian flu.

Farm owners that do not abide by the protection measures will bear the responsibility of their negligence, the committee said.

The committee also said firm measures will be taken against moving poultry from one governorate to another or from one farm to another.

On his part, Ambassador Ayman el-Qaffas, Head of Egypt's State Information Service and the High Committee Spokesman, said at the press conference which was held after the committee meeting that the reports discussed by the committee in its meeting on 2/1/2008 mentioned that the number of bird-flue cases in 2007 reached 25 cases and the number of suspected cases reached 143 cases including 5 injuries and 4 deaths compared to 18 injures in 2006.

The reports mentioned that the number of injuries in the poultry farms reached 19 and at homes reached 17 injuries.

He said that one of the reasons for spreading bird-flu disease once again is the way of preserving and keeping the vaccines and transporting the poultry from one farm to another. He also stressed the necessity to apply the decisions of 18 February, 2006.

He added that the high committee had taken several measures to ensure safety of the vaccines transport and to prevent transporting poultry wastes from the farms to other places. He said that the percentage of cure for the cases that reached hospitals was 100%.

He also noted that the international situation of bird-flu is worse than the Egyptian one as the number of cases reached 348 and number of death reached 216, adding that the big percentage of deaths are in Indonesia and Vietnam.

He said that Minister of Media decided in coordination with Ministers of Agricultural, Health and Environment to intensify the media campaigns to spread guidance information about facing bird-flu disease and ways of protection. He also said that the media center affiliated to Egypt's State Information Service will continue helping in these national campaigns for the sake of citizens' health and for preserving the poultry resources