Prime Minister's Office Director-General Ilan Cohen convened
the Directors-General Forum on dealing with bird flu on
Monday, April 3, 2006. The Agriculture and Rural Development
Ministry Director-General, the Health Ministry Director-
General, Veterinary Services and Finance Ministry
representatives, regional council chairmen, and poultry
farmers' representatives attended the meeting.
Participants were briefed by representatives of all relevant
bodies on work procedures of, and lessons gained from, the
campaign against bird flu in order to be better prepared for
possible future outbreaks. To this end, the directors-general
agreed on formulating detailed work procedures:
* Advance stage — A work procedure has been formulated
on the equipping of government bodies, including
communications with contractors and suppliers and intra-
governmental coordination.
* Identification and immediate action stage — Work
procedures have been defined for immediate action upon the
identification of the disease. PMO Dir.-Gen. Cohen instructed
that action timetables be stepped up and that emphasis be
placed on quarantine and sterilization methods to prevent the
disease from spreading.
* Culling and sterilization stage: Culling and burial
procedures have been refined.
The directors-general decided that, immediately upon the
conclusion of all such events, a comprehensive review —
including an epidemiological study — will be held in
order to draw the necessary conclusions.
The Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry Dir.-Gen. said
that farmers will soon be eligible to receive advances on the
compensation due to them, as per the government's commitment
to them. A professional team is currently examining the issue
of farmers' indirect damages in order to assess them more
accurately.
A conference of all relevant government bodies and officials
will be held Monday, April 10, in order to review the
aforementioned work procedures and lessons. The conference is
in continuation of the government's cooperation with local
authorities.
PMO Dir.-Gen. Cohen thanked all those concerned: "Despite the
difficulties involved, the State of Israel dealt immediately
and professionally with the first crisis and brought about
its conclusion in a very short time in comparison to other
countries, and minimized potential damage."
Less than 2 percent of Israel's poultry sector was adversely
affected; in comparison with much higher proportions in
various European countries. Neither was there any decrease in
the supply of poultry to consumers.
