Municipal authorities in Riyadh have decided to shut down all the 385 stores that slaughter live poultry from July 26, a top municipality official said.

Soliman Al-Buthi, general manager of the Directorate General of the Environmental Health Department in the Riyadh Municipality, said the move was part of the precautionary measure to check the spread of bird flu and other diseases.

He said that live poultry shops would be given an ultimatum to close their businesses before the specified date or face forced closure.

“All live poultry outlets will be shut down starting from this July 28,” Al Buthi was quoted as saying in the Arab News.

The measures are part of necessary precautions being taken through a joint decision made by the Riyadh Municipality, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health to stop the spread of bird flu in the capital.

“The Ministry of Agriculture receives reports on bird flu, while our role is to determine the location of the report in the city. The Ministry of Health’s role is to later take the samples,” Al Buthi added.

Live poultry stores are used by those who wish to purchase fresh chicken that is slaughtered in front of them in the Islamic way.

The stores give customers the opportunity of choosing the size and shape of chickens before slaughtering.

The official noted that the municipality has brought together teams from all of the municipality’s 14 branches to inspect the 385 live poultry stores operating in the capital.

The teams were directed to keep an eye for anybird flu symptoms in these outlets as well as to record cases of dead poultry and obtain samples for research.
“The team conducted inspections thrice a day - morning, afternoon and evening, including during the weekends,” Al Buthi explained.

In addition to the health conditions of the birds, the teams took note of health violations by sellers, the cleanliness of cages and the hygienic environment.

The officials also checked into the fact whether these sellers had legal licences.
Al-Buthi pointed out that the tests at all the stores produced negative results during the inspection and that the decision to close stores was a precautionary one.

He said that in addition to inspections of poultry stores, municipality teams visited restaurants, which slaughter live animals and cook their meat in underground stoves.

Health Minister Hamad Al-Manei had recently asserted that there was “no bird flu outbreak” in Saudi Arabia.

He said cases reported in the eastern province were due to birds migrating across the Kingdom’s borders. TradeArabia News Service