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Eggs, Chicken Grow Scarce in Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti ? A ban on poultry imports from the Dominican Republic is causing food shortages in neighboring Haiti, adding to concerns about food prices in this impoverished country.
Haitian officials declared the ban this week after 115 Dominican chickens tested positive for a strain of avian flu that, while not a threat to humans, has forced the killing of millions of chickens in Asia.
Egg prices at the market in Port-au-Prince's La Saline district jumped 25 percent to more than $3. Long lines snaked around stalls at the outdoor market as buyers and merchants panicked that supplies could soon run out.
"What are we going to do now? This is what I make a living from, this is what I use to send my kids to school," said Chantal Louisius, who normally sells eggs that her husband buys at the Dominican border and carries back to the Haitian capital about 60 kilometers (35 miles) away.
Poor Haitians already are struggling with food prices pushed up by the high oil prices and farm damage from last year's tropical storms.
Haiti imports at least 1 million eggs and hundreds of thousands of chickens from the Dominican Republic every day, said Jolivier Toussaint, director of imports for the Haitian agriculture ministry.
The outbreak was detected last month in the eastern Dominican Republic when fighting roosters awaiting export to Colombia were tested and found to carry the H5N2 strain of avian flu.
Puerto Rico halted all bird imports, forcing the cancellation of more than 100 cockfights in the U.S. territory.
H5N2 is not a danger to humans, but has produced outbreaks across Asia and prompted the killing of more than 5 million birds in Japan alone since 2005. The more virulent H5N1 strain has killed 216 people worldwide, mostly in Asia, according to the World Health Organization.
The ban will be lifted when Dominican authorities are confident the flu strain has been contained, Toussaint said.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti ? A ban on poultry imports from the Dominican Republic is causing food shortages in neighboring Haiti, adding to concerns about food prices in this impoverished country.
Haitian officials declared the ban this week after 115 Dominican chickens tested positive for a strain of avian flu that, while not a threat to humans, has forced the killing of millions of chickens in Asia.
Egg prices at the market in Port-au-Prince's La Saline district jumped 25 percent to more than $3. Long lines snaked around stalls at the outdoor market as buyers and merchants panicked that supplies could soon run out.
"What are we going to do now? This is what I make a living from, this is what I use to send my kids to school," said Chantal Louisius, who normally sells eggs that her husband buys at the Dominican border and carries back to the Haitian capital about 60 kilometers (35 miles) away.
Poor Haitians already are struggling with food prices pushed up by the high oil prices and farm damage from last year's tropical storms.
Haiti imports at least 1 million eggs and hundreds of thousands of chickens from the Dominican Republic every day, said Jolivier Toussaint, director of imports for the Haitian agriculture ministry.
The outbreak was detected last month in the eastern Dominican Republic when fighting roosters awaiting export to Colombia were tested and found to carry the H5N2 strain of avian flu.
Puerto Rico halted all bird imports, forcing the cancellation of more than 100 cockfights in the U.S. territory.
H5N2 is not a danger to humans, but has produced outbreaks across Asia and prompted the killing of more than 5 million birds in Japan alone since 2005. The more virulent H5N1 strain has killed 216 people worldwide, mostly in Asia, according to the World Health Organization.
The ban will be lifted when Dominican authorities are confident the flu strain has been contained, Toussaint said.
