RIYADH: Saudi’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture has lifted the ban on the import of poultry from Malaysia. The temporary ban on the import of live birds, hatching eggs and chicks from Malaysia was imposed, following an alert by the Malaysian authorities after the H5N1 bird flu virus was found in farms in Kelantan in March this year.
The Director General of the Department of Animal Risk Assessment, Dr Sanad Al-Harbi, said that the lift was based on the follow-up of the epidemiological situation by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). The reassessment showed that no new hot spots for bird flu were registered in the past three months in Malaysia.