RFE/RL has updates on various stories that it has covered extensively in the past week and which have also featured prominently on this blog. And as the spread of bird flu appears to be foremost in the minds of many, it seems only natural that the global media appears to have been ‘infected’ the most.

For Armenia, the fact that neighboring Turkey is suffering raises some concern here although RFE/RL reports that not many businessmen involved with the poultry market appear to be taking newly introduced restrictions from the government seriously.

The State Veterinary Inspectorate announced on January 10 that market traders across the country can no longer sell poultry and wild birds without a special license from the agency which is subordinated to the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture. The measure was part of government measures taken in response to a bird flu outbreak in eastern Turkish regions close to Armenia that has killed at least three people.

But at the bird market in Yerevan’s Kanaker-Zeytun district it was business as usual, with live chickens and pet birds such as pigeons and parrots available for sale in large numbers. Traders there told RFE/RL that nobody has even tried to enforce the serious curbs ban on their business.

“I have my clientele and my business is going on as usual,” said one of them.

“Yes, they’ve told us about [the restrictions], but nobody is asking for any documents,” said another trader.

Perhaps the funniest quote in the piece comes from Petros Hakobian, Deputy Head of the Kanaker-Zeytun District of Yerevan and, ahem, coincidently the owner of the local market.

He at first claimed to be unaware of the government restrictions and said he will ban poultry trade only if “a single bird flu case is registered” in Armenia. “I am the owner and must pay taxes. In order to be able to do that I have to work,” he said.

“Their sale is indeed banned,” Hakobian confessed later in the interview. But he claimed that his traders simply want their birds to “breathe some fresh air” and that he can not stop them doing that.

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Today.az reports that the sale of poultry has been prohibited in Azerbaijan since 13 February. Although there have been no cases of avian flu reported in the Republic, the state authorities are taking no chances. The Head of the Azerbaijani State Veterinary Service, Ismail Hasanov, has also met with the Economic Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador.

It has been agreed that on January 16 samples of poultry died in Azeri Masally regions and 100 samples of blood will be sent for analysis to Cairo referent laboratory.

Local laboratories did not detect bird flu during tests, but we have decided to repeat analysis to be absolutely sure, said Hasanov.

For other stories relating to Avian flu fears in the South Caucasus, two new categories have been added to the list on the right, and also below.

Writing for Eurasianet, RFE/RL’s Emil Danielyan says that reports of avian bird flu in neighboring Turkey is causing some alarm in Armenia. In recent days, the Armenian government has already announced that it is introducing emergency measures to prevent the risk of the infection emerging here.

President Robert Kocharian held an emergency meeting with senior government officials on January 9 following last week’s death of three Turkish children from a village located less than 60 kilometers from the Armenian border. The children reportedly died after playing with chickens infected with the H5N1 virus. It was the first case of the disease transmitted from birds to humans outside of East Asia. Turkish health authorities have since confirmed at least 14 bird flu cases, most of them in the country’s eastern regions close to Armenia.

The Armenian government already set up an inter-ministerial task force in November in response to similar outbreaks of the disease in Russia, Turkey and Eastern Europe late last year. The potential for a grave crisis in Turkey has led the task force to step up its activities. Its deputy chief, Grigor Baghian, is holding news briefings on a virtually daily basis to inform Armenians about steps taken by the government and to give relevant advice. “In terms of avian influenza prophylactics, we are doing everything that is being done around the world,” he assured reporters on January 11.

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RFE/RL reports that the Armenian government is keeping a close eye on the situation with an outbreak of avian bird flu in neighboring Turkey. While nationalists in the Diaspora seem to think that a closed border with it’s neighbor will protect the Republic, local Armenians are nonetheless following the news closely. I’m also glad to see that the Armenian government is introducing measures in case something does happen.

The Armenian authorities announced on Monday extraordinary measures to prevent the spread of bird flu from nearby regions in neighboring Turkey where the deadly virus has already killed three people and is reportedly sweeping westward.

Officials said the government in Yerevan has imposed a complete ban on poultry imports, introduced mandatory sanitary controls on Armenia’s border crossings and ordered the Armenia customs to check every piece of luggage arriving from Turkey.

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Garo Adanalian from Notes from Hairenik has just forwarded me a US Embassy warning addressed to American citizens living in Armenia. Because there have been cases of Avian Bird Flu close to the border with Armenia, US citizens are warned to avoid contact with poultry in Armenia.

Embassy Yerevan Warden Message 1

The Turkish Ministry of Health has confirmed three positive tests of H5 avian influenza in humans in eastern Turkey –approximately 55 kilometers from the Armenian-Turkish border. Two of these cases have resulted in deaths. Press reports indicating other infections in Turkey have not been confirmed. At this time, it has not been confirmed that the recent illnesses in Turkey were caused by H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which has resulted in human deaths in Asia.

The Government of Armenia has stated that there are no confirmed cases of either bird or human avian influenza in Armenia.

Given the situation in neighboring Turkey, we recommend that American citizens avoid all contact with live poultry and wild birds and to avoid commercial or backyard poultry farms and live poultry markets.

Anyway, Garo says it sounds scary to him, and Katy over at Blogrel recently posted a link to a map of outbreaks. The BBC has an in-depth look at Avian bird flu here.