The Meeting of the Government of Georgia was held on 24 February 2006. The audience mainly discussed the case of the bird flue discovered in Ajara.
Before the beginning of the Meeting, Prime Minister of Georgia Mr. Zurab Noghaideli said: yesterday, there were massive wild bird falls on the lake in the territory of Adlia. Laboratory tests were conducted the whole night and, by preliminary estimates, one of the wild swans is affected by the bird flue virus. Therefore, at this meeting we'll have to make considerable adjustments in our action plan.
First of all, I'd like to say that our efforts at the border checkpoints against the spread of bird flue in Georgia have proved to be very effective. More than that, the virus in Georgia has spread after such countries as the founding members of the European Union - France and Germany. Our objective is to take as prompt and effective measures as possible to liquidate bird flu.
I'd like to state that the results of laboratory tests and analyses have been transferred to the so-called referral laboratories in London and Venice. The final conclusion can be made only after the precise findings have been provided from there but we can't just sit and wait. Rather, we'll start work from today.
By instruction from the President, together with the Minister of Agriculture, I'm traveling to Ajara to coordinate the process on site. All the measures will be taken pursuant to the plan that we developed at the Government meeting 2 months ago. I'd like to assign the Ministry of Environmental Protection to tighten monitoring in bird migration areas, particularly along migration routes. I'd like to remind the population that there are three main routes going across Georgia. This is almost the entire Kolkheti lowland, then the migration route going over Javakheti lakes and the third migration route going over Kakheti.
I'd like to add that despite our warnings and bans, hunting is still continuing. For example, some of the birds fallen yesterday had been killed with cartridge. I'd lile to repeatedly call on the population to restrain from bird hunting. If they discover a fallen bird, they should report it. The booklet we have issued must be disseminated once again. We must conduct series of works at schools to keep the society informed as much as possible.
If the virus is confirmed in Georgia, our goal is to maximally prevent it from spreading to domestic birds and, naturally, human beings. This is our objective within the nearest period and all the efforts will be bent towards it.
Our teams deployed in the region would immediately learn about and promptly respond to any report of bird fall. For example, yesterday afternoon, the facts of bird fall were discovered yesterday; we already have the information and the action has been launched.
Press Center of the Chancellery of the Government of Georgia