CAIRO — Egypt’s Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation al-Sayed el-Quseir announced June 14 that the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has lifted the ban on poultry exports from Egypt. Certain facilities shown to be free of the bird flu will be allowed to resume poultry exports.
The outbreak of avian influenza (H5N1) in 2006 had dealt a heavy blow to the Egyptian poultry exports, causing massive losses. Almost two decades after, the country appears to have partially contained the epidemic and achieved self-sufficiency by producing around 1.4 billion birds and around 13 billion eggs per year. Investments in the sector exceed 90 billion Egyptian pounds (about $6 billion).