Everyone is talking about the bird flu and advising each other not to eat chicken or eggs-either in public transportation, on the streets, or at work. The people living in the city, who know about the bird flu, call their relatives living in the villages, advising them to hurry and kill all the hens they have, eat them before the bird flu spreads and kills the chickens too. Every day we hear about the number of bird deaths in Armenia-is it from a worm in the bird’s appendix, some kind of fake plague, or did the poor bird get run over by a car? Some political figures have found an easy topic to talk about and claim that the bird flu has made its way to Armenia and we simply don’t know about it. In contrast to this, our authorities tell us that there is no bird flu in Armenia-or at least, they have not found it yet. As a result, consumers buying bird products are threatened. They think that since the bird flu has already made its way to Turkey and 18 people have already died, then the virus must also be in Armenia too. There are no signs of the bird flu in Armenia, but it will show up sooner or later. Stores have stopped selling bird products and it appears that producers are in a state of panic not so much for the bird flu, as for loss in finances. They have even founded a united committee of poultry farming companies and have made an announcement: “Any announcement made about the bird flu possibly entering Armenia and the predictions that it might spread just go way overboard.” Each member of the committee assures that, beginning in August when the flu had just been discovered in Russia, they had “set a quarantine regime, maintained all the Western sanitary/hygienic standards, so the bird flu can not spread in Armenia.” The producers of the committee call on consumers not to buy suspicious or unregistered bird products and trust them because their products correspond to all requirements. But very few consumers listen to what the producers say and continue to eat omelets or fried chicken. Consumers even make jokes, asking whether or not the chicken suggested by the seller has not died from the bird flu.
“Do you remember when Armenia was importing eggs from Turkey back in the 1990s because we had a shortage?” says president of “Max Concern” Khachik Manukyan. “We producers have solved this problem. Today, we fulfill the demand for eggs in Armenia and we even export eggs to Georgia. Do you remember years ago when Armenians used to buy eggs two weeks before the New Year because it was impossible to find eggs in any store by the end of December? We solved that problem and there were plenty of eggs this year and the past two years. We have created many work places and provide high quality food. But this state of panic may cause problems for us and our hard work will have been for nothing.”
These producers have the right to worry because even the “smart” store clerks advise their “close and uninformed” friends not to buy eggs or chicken. According to specialists, eggs can be eaten in any condition and meat, as always, can be cooked and people can eat it without any fear.
“The media exaggerates with the information that it prints,” says owner of the cattle-raising anti-epidemic center of Armenia Schmidt Vartapetyan. “There have been cases of the bird flu in some countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Rumania, Asia and Turkey. The bird flu has not made its way to Armenia yet. We have been very careful; we have researched every bird, whether it be a rooster, a pigeon, or any other type of bird. There are still no cases of the bird flu. The day when we discover the bird flu, I will take on the responsibility of letting the whole population know.”
Both the producers and Mr. Vartapteyan blame journalists for the state of panic that everyone is in. They don’t believe that what happened in Turkey was due to the bird flu.
“The report on the bird flu in Turkey shows some people running after a sick rooster but they can’t seem to grab it,” says Sh. Vartapetyan. “If that rooster was sick, how could it run so fast that the men were not able to grab it? They talk about the bird flu and the massive elimination of sick birds, but they only show one or two chickens. If this is an epidemic, why don’t they show a lot of sick birds? The Aralik village, located in Turkey, is just a couple of kilometers away from our Shirazlu village. If there were to be an epidemic there, in that case, not even the ban on import, contacts or the means taken by the customs points to disinfect the birds would stop the virus from spreading to Armenia.”
But there is also another opinion. Specialists recall that there have been more than 30,000,000 tourists visiting Turkey over the past couple of years. That country has attracted more tourists than any developed country in Europe. Basically, Turkey stole Europe’s tourists and some people think that this is all just a big lie and a way to weaken tourism-especially since there are some announcements being made that the Turkish boat has dropped dead birds into the sea. Specialists say that poultry farming is much more developed in Turkey than any other developed country in Europe. These cases hurt two fields of Turkish economy at the same time and led up to a loss of millions of dollars.
Despite all this, the Turkish government has confirmed that the bird flu has entered the country and Armenia is in danger. Every day some dead birds are found and then we find out that it is not due to the bird flu. Even if the bird flu penetrates to Armenia from Turkey, specialists assure that it will be possible to stop the spread of the flu. Let’s just hope.