Television Vijesti, accompanied by an inspection, visited the poultry farm: Are measures being implemented in the fight against bird flu?

There are currently only 14 veterinary inspectors in Montenegro.

They are in charge of animals and food safety, and today they visited some of the households that raise poultry.

The team of Television Vijesti, accompanied by the inspection, visited a poultry farm in Podgorica and checked whether preventive measures are being implemented, in order to suppress a potential epidemic of bird flu.

While we're seeing off one epidemic, a new one could soon be knocking on our door - this time affecting birds.

The bird flu virus was confirmed eight days ago in pelicans on Lake Skadar, and domestic poultry are also at risk of infection.

For this reason, the Directorate for Veterinary, Food Safety and Phytosanitary Affairs has strengthened its inspection supervision over farms that breed poultry.

In the focus of supervision are both private, smaller farms, as well as commercial ones, whose products are in wider use.

One such farm, where more than 14 thousand chickens and other poultry are raised, is located near Podgorica.

A possible problem, in the case of the spread of infection, is the high mortality rate in poultry, and thus the large financial losses of the owners, which is why farms, even without warning from the inspection, should implement preventive measures.

In case of violation of protection measures, fines range up to 2.000 euros for individuals and up to 20.000 euros for legal entities, the inspection warns.

They add that, if it were proven that an infection occurred as a result of non-compliance with the regulations, the responsible persons would also bear criminal responsibility.

The inspection says that only with the help of preventive measures can the spread of bird flu be stopped.