Iraq bans the import of poultry products from Turkey
Chickens in a poultry farm. Photo: Getty Images
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi government issued a decision on Friday banning the import of poultry products from Turkey because of the outbreak of bird flu.
Iraqi epidemiologist Thaer Sabri Hussein mentioned that a decision was issued to ban the import of poultry products in countries where bird flu has spread, including Turkey, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
“The decision was issued last January, and Turkish poultry products in the Iraqi market were imported either before the ban date or entered Iraq illegally after this date,” Hussein explained.
Last February, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised concerns about the development of new strains of the bird flu virus, as a result of mutations in mammalian bodies.
The WHO mentioned that it is cooperating with the Cambodian authorities, after the discovery of two confirmed cases of the (H5N1) strain known as bird flu among one family in Cambodia.
Bird flu is a highly contagious viral disease that affects domestic and wild birds.
This complex disease is caused by viruses that are divided into multiple subtypes (such as H5N1, H5N3, H5N8, etc.), and their genetic characteristics evolve rapidly, according to data from the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH).