CAIRO: A total of 28,628 pigs have been killed so far within the government’s precautionary measures against swine flu, Ibrahim El Bendary, general director of the preventive medicine department at the General Authority for Veterinary Services, told Daily News Egypt.
Out of these 1,895 were slaughtered and their meat stored and the remaining 26,734 were killed and disposed of.
“We are moving at a very good rate, El Bendary said. “The highest number has been in Cairo where we eradicated 23,317 pigs. We are also working in Giza, Helwan, Beheira and Sixth of October.
Those killed in the slaughterhouse have their meat stored for future consumption, while there is concern about how the rest would be disposed of. El Bendary said that they will be buried deep in the ground. The Ministry of Environment has called for special measures to be taken into account in such burial sites.
“Some Muslim health officials have refused to monitor or carry out the killings because they did not want to get in contact with them – because Muslims are prohibited from eating pigs – however, they came around and everyone is involved in the process now, El Bendary said.
Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali announced that LE 31.5 million has been allocated for the compensation for pig farmers. The compensation for a pig less than five months old is LE 50, older pigs are for LE 100 and those that were ready to be slaughtered and sold are LE 250, said El Bendary.
The Ministry of Health confirmed that no cases have been reported in the country, refuting media reports that suggested public hospitals have reported suspected cases.
Minister of Information, Anas El-Fiqqi has further confirmed that all media reports stating that there are human cases of swine flu in Egypt are inaccurate.
By press time, the WHO said 30 countries have officially reported 4,694 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection.
Mexico remains the country with the highest number of cases at 1,626 confirmed human cases, including 48 deaths, followed by the United States that so far reported 2,532 confirmed cases, including three deaths and Canada which has reported 284 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death.
Costa Rica has reported eight laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death.
The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths; Argentina (1), Australia (1), Austria (1), Brazil (8), China (2),Colombia (3), Denmark (1), El Salvador (4), France (13), Germany (11), Guatemala (1), Ireland (1), Israel (7), Italy (9), Japan (4), Netherlands (3), New Zealand (7), Norway (2), Panama (15), Poland (1), Portugal (1), Republic of Korea (3), Spain (95), Sweden (2), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (47).
