25 Tons of Iranian Chicken Meat Seized in Afghanistan

Afghan intelligence officials on Tuesday confiscated 25 tons of chicken meat after being smuggled into the western Herat Province from Iran.

The driver of the vehicle carrying the meat worth about 2.3 million afghanis ($33,161) has been arrested in Herat City, the provincial capital, the governor’s spokesman said.

Jilani Farhad added that the meat had been brought from Iran in defiance of a government ban on chicken meat from the country and without the payment of customs duty, Pajhwok Afghan News reported.

Afghan Poultry Farms Owners Association’s head in Heart, Zia Rahman Rahmani, said currently 16 poultry farms had been quarantined to prevent the spread of influenza virus in the birds.

He said farm owners had sustained heavy losses due to the virus because the sale and purchase of chickens had dramatically dropped. He urged the Afghan government to assist the affected poultry farm owners.

Provincial agriculture and livestock director, Abdul Saboor Rahmani, said all birds infected with the virus would be culled soon.  “The Afghan ban on Iranian chicken meat came after an H5N8 strain of avian influenza was reported in Iran. The outbreak has already spread across the country, leading to the cull of over 24 million chickens,” Chairman of Iran Veterinary Organization Alireza Rafieipour said.

It has inflicted losses worth over half a billion dollars on Iranian poultry farms this year. The province of Qom is said to be the hardest hit.

On Tuesday, Iran also reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N6 strain of bird flu among wild ducks in the north of the country.