Saudi kills 13,500 ostriches as bird flu spreads

OUTBREAK SPREADS: Ostriches are the latest birds to be culled in Saudi Arabia. (AFP)

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Agriculture has ordered 13,500 ostriches to be culled, following a new outbreak on a poultry farm of a deadly strain of bird flu.

The H5N1 strain was discovered on a farm at Al-Kharj, 150 kilometres south of Riyadh just days before Muslims flock to Mecca for the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

The number of culled birds in the kingdom totals 4.5 million since the outbreak of the disease in November.

Most of the discoveries so far have been made in Riyadh, and the ministry has not reported any cases in areas surrounding Mecca. Farms surrounding the port city of Jeddah, the gateway for pilgrims to Mecca and Medina, are safe, the ministry said.

The shipment of live birds was banned from Riyadh to Mecca earlier this month, as a precaution. The ministry also prohibited the sale of live birds in the holy city.

The bird flu scare has gripped Saudi Arabia, however, it has yet to significantly impact on the kingdom’s economy.

Khalid Al-Fahaid, an Agriculture Ministry spokesman, told ArabianBusiness.com the number of birds killed so far made up a tiny percentage of the total poultry population.

He estimated there are around 532 million birds in Saudi Arabia and those culled since the outbreak began in early November only represent 0.8% of that total.

The Saudi government is providing financial compensation to farmers affected by the outbreak - 80% of the total amount lost - but the birds have to be culled by the Agriculture Ministry for farmers to be eligible.

According to the ministry, there are 505 poultry farms in the kingdom with 101 table-egg farms producing over 3.2 billion eggs annually.

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