January 12 2006, 17:17 Interfax-Ukraine

Criminal cases started in Crimea against poultry farm management and vet officials

Prosecutor's office of the Crimea has started criminal cases on the facts of mass deaths of poultry at poultry farms of the republic. Criminal accusations are made to officials of a poultry breeding enterprise located in a suburb of Feodosia city and those of the Veterinary Medicine Department of the city of Feodosia, press-service of the prosecutors office has said.

It said that it had been revealed in the course of checks that in late December - early January mass diseases and deaths of poultry were registered in four poultry-breeding farms located in the resort suburb of Feodosia - the village of Primorskoye. At the current moment the number of the poultry which died or as culled is said to have exceeded 165,000 heads.

Agrarian Policy Ministry of Ukraine has been insisting that the outburst of bird flu in Primorskoye was caused by violation of the veterinary regulations and the laws of Ukraine by management of the poultry farms involved. The minister Olexandr Baranivsky said: "They were letting poultry drink from the open-air water reservoirs, where migrating birds had often sat, instead of using wells for the purpose. It's a gross ignorance."

He said that such behaviour was not to be tolerated, and therefore the criminal cases had been started against these people.

It was also reported that the bird flu diagnosis had not been confirmed at once that the mass deaths of poultry had started. The decision about extermination of the entire bird flock in the village was taken only after laboratory proof of the diagnosis arrived.

Ukraine's Ministry for Emergency Situations said no bird flu infection among people had been registered or suspected.