October 20 2005, 17:38 APK-Inform

Ukrainian veterinary chief resigns after alleged bird flu criticism

Interfax-Ukraine news agency informed that the Head of Ukraine's State Department for Veterinary Medicine, Petro Verbytsky, has applied resignation.

"The resignation request has indeed been submitted," the news agency has learnt at the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.

Verbytsky wrote the letter of resignation of his own free will, providing no reasons. The Cabinet of Ministers should take a decision on Verbytskyy's resignation.

However, rumors have been circulating that AP Minister Oleksandr Baranivsky recently criticised Verbytsky for what he described as the state veterinary service's failure to take necessary precautions against bird flu.

Petro Verbytsky has been described by some foreign and local observers as a very "controversial" head of the state veterinary service. He was said to have used several of his 'unusual' and 'new' biological theories about the way the U.S. processes poultry meat and its possible impact on the human body to effectively stop the import of U.S poultry into Ukraine for several years. Many persons who worked on this problem felt the real reason the import of poultry was stopped did not have anything to do with the 'unusual' and 'new' biological theories promoted and effectively used by Petro Verbytsky to stop the import of U.S. poultry.