STONE TOWN, 23 February (IRIN) - Authorities in Tanzania's semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar will, with effect from March, partially lift a ban on the
importation of poultry from selected countries, an official with the islands' avian flu steering committee said on Friday. Zanzibar imposed the restriction on the importation of poultry products in
2005 to minimise the risk of avian flu spreading to the territory. However, since the ban, demand for poultry products on the islands has been increasing, especially from the tourism industry. The
secretary of the Zanzibar Avian and Human Influenza Steering Committee, Rahma Mshangama, told reporters that three poultry farms would be allowed to import 'parent stock' from Mauritius. Small-scale
poultry keepers would also be allowed to import chicks from selected farms in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of mainland Tanzania. "Fresh chicken [meat] and eggs remain indefinitely
prohibited. We cannot have a total lift on the ban on poultry products because bird flu is still a threat. Zanzibar cannot manage to control the disease once it breaks out because of a lack of
standard laboratories," Mshangama said. The deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu has been found in several African countries. The poultry industry in Asia and in a few European countries has been
affected by the disease, which has claimed dozens of human lives, mostly in Asia. iy/jn/mw
