High level Moldovan institutions present different positions on bird flu. IPN investigation

A state institution considers as „incorrect suspicions” the investigations made by IPN reporter aiming to find additional information about the possibility of the avian influenza presence in Moldova. Another institution “shares its concern” with the society on this issue, and others did not give any information over the last 10 days. 10 days ago, the reporter of the Agency has officially sent a series of questions to several public authorities regarding the existence of bird flu on the territory of the country and about the extent of the society’s preparedness to face it. The reporter considered it of major public concern and national security under the conditions when in the neighbor country, Romania were detected new foci, termed by the Romanian authorities as threats to the national security. In his reply, based on official data, collected from several specialized institutions, the chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for Agriculture and Alimentary Industry, Valeriu Cosarciuc affirms that the results of laboratory investigations performed until now do not confirm the presence of the bird flu virus. Cosarciuc says that, although Moldova is on alert, as the neighbor countries, the information launched previously by some press bodies that on the right side of Nistru were found bird flu foci are not grounded. The declared lack of the virus on the territory of the Republic of Moldova under the circumstances when it became a dangerous reality in the countries around us was explained by the quoted source by the actions undertaken continuously by the specialized services to detect sick or dead birds both domestic and wild and subsequent tests. The results of all those 5500 tests of blood serum are negative. As regards to the actions undertaken by the public authorities in the area of bird flu prophylaxis, the level of preparedness for fighting the virus in case it appears, and on informing the population, the parliamentary states that the situation is actively supervised by the Center of Scientific-Practical Medicine, “Moldsilva” management, the Science Academy of Moldova (SAM), the Society of Hunters and Fishers, the Exceptional Situations Department. According to him, this information is disclosed for all persons and is “systematically and in time presented to all national and international bodies, especially to the International Office of Epizooty”, and the information which is brought up to date is “permanently used to familiarize the population through all public informing sources”. At the solicitation of IPN reporter the head of the Parliamentary commission describes the mechanism for spreading the information regarding a possible appearance of the bird flu virus and the responsibilities stipulated by the legislation in force for not honoring in time the obligations. In this way, the Republican Center of Veterinary Diagnostic confirms the diagnostic of bird flu in a certain locality, announces the territorial State Sanitary Veterinary Service. The Veterinary Medicine management announces the Ministry of Agriculture and Alimentary Industry announces the President of the Republic of Moldova, the Governemnt, the chairman of the Extraordinary Anti-epidemic Commission, Valerian Cristea, including further presentation of the information to mass-media. “For hiding information the State Veterinary Service is liable to personal juridical responsibility”. “As a rule, the virus can not be concealed, that is why the suspicions are incorrect”, ended Valeriu Cosarciuc. At the same time, the coordinating academician of the Biological, Chemical, Ecological Sciences Branch of SAM, Ion Toderas communicated that he “shares the concern regarding the real threat of bird flu”, but he is sure that in the Republic of Moldova are undertaken maximum possible security measures in order to prevent its spreading, scientific researchers make expeditions in different regions of the country and did not find out cases of dead wild birds “in order to have arguments for suspecting the presence of the H5N1 virus in the Republic of Moldova. The academician states that for getting thorough the provocations linked to bird flu, the Institute of Zoology if SAM has acute need of special strictly necessary equipment, which copes with international standards. The Government of the Republic of Moldova, the Ministry of Agriculture and Industry, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, the Intelligence and Security Service did not answer to the solicitations of IPN reporter on the same subject. [IPN Note:] The Law on the access to information demands the public authorities to offer answers to the addressed solicitations within 15 working days from the date the request was registered. The official term has not yet expired. But the Agency finds useful to reproduce the note with which the reporter ended the solicitation: “We will be very grateful if you will honor our inquiry promptly, taking into consideration the alarming dynamics of the situation from the neighbor countries.”