Unjustified and false information on food safety is being frequently disseminated via social media.
The State Service for Food Safety of MOA, RA does not avoid criticism, moreover, believes that healthy criticism often contributes to more targeted action planning, but also separates the criticism from unfounded information, which can cause anxiety among the public. The last such incident is related to the import of broiler chickens from Turkey.
We would like to remind that the import of live birds, poultry, raw materials (feathers, fluff), table and incubation eggs, meat and bone meal, feed, additional feed (excluding additional feed containing synthetic and chemical materials), polymeric and cardboard boxes and pads from the Republic of Turkey to the Republic of Armenia was forbidden on 7 May, 2015 by the State Service for Food Safety of MOA, RA until the cancellation of quarantine for preventing the entry of avian flu (H5N1 type) from the Republic of Turkey to the Republic of Armenia.
Broiler chickens had been imported from Turkey to the Republic of Armenia before the import ban which gave rise to different interpretations in media and social networks. On this occasion, we inform you that there is no reason to worry. Although the chicken batch had been imported before the import ban, all safety requirements were maintained during the import, documentary and clinical examination were implemented within the framework of border control in the results of which no disease symptom was found. Avian flu incubation period lasts 20-48 hours, and till now the chickens which are under the supervision of the Service do not have any symptom of the disease. It should be mentioned that this batch will be under quarantine control for 30 days, they will be kept separately, in a closed area, their movement and realization will be forbidden.
At the same time we inform you that the cases of avian flu (H5N1 type) were recorded in one region of Turkey, and the imported batch was from safe area far enough from the infection zone.
Before the dissemination of panic causing information we call on the interested parties to get clarifications from professionals and the state regulatory body on a topic as it is only possible to solve the problems due to strong state-society relations and cooperation.