The Health Ministry has asked the municipal and district extraordinary anti-epidemic commissions along with local public administrations to start isolating and evacuating the vagrant dogs that could be a bird flu infection source.

Ion Bahnarel, director of the National Centre of Preventive Medicine, stated to BASA that researching institutions in countries affected by bird flu have confirmed that vagrant dogs can also carry the bird flu virus. "They have a low immunity because of bad nutrition and the risk to consume dead animals including birds is very high," Bahnarel noted.

Contacted by BASA, Victor Serghienco, deputy director of the municipal enterprise Autosalubritate, said that six teams equipped with a special vehicle catch vagrant dogs from streets of Chisinau and suburbs every day, at the request of kindergartens, schools and residents.

He noted that the dogs are held in cages and some of them are distributed to people who want to take the animals. "A German association has opened an asylum for vagrant dogs in the commune of Ciorescu near Chisinau and offers all living conditions to them," Serghienco added.

According to statistics of Autosalubritate, there are more than 30,000 vagrant dogs in the Chisinau municipality. // BASA-Press


Publication date: 19 January 2006   

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