Reuben Olita
29 August 2008
Nairobi — KENYA Government has banned with immediate effect the transportation of live birds and chicken by long distance trucks entering the country through Malaba and Busia as a caution to avian influenza which it said had reached Southern Sudan.
Kenya has also banned transportation of cattle horns from Uganda and other Great Lakes countries by buses saying passengers risked contacting zoonotic diseases related to the horns.
Livestock development ministry officials have been put on high alert at Malaba and Busia in Kenya to ensure that the order is observed.
Ministry officials said the entry of bird flu into the country was imminent considering that it had been detected in Southern Sudan, thus the institution of the tough measures.
"No cases of Birds Flu have been detected in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania but we are worried that trucks coming from beyond Uganda and carrying live birds and chicken could be putting the country at risk of the pandemic," he said.
Similarly, an official in Malaba told Saturday Vision that research had revealed horns of the Ankole cattle contained a virus which could easily be spread to human beings if transported in the same bus with passengers.
"We have no problem if these horns were transported by trucks, from the country of origin to the Port of Mombasa for onward export but not by buses," he said.
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