CUMUTO, Trinidad (AP):
TRINIDAD'S HEALTH minister called for calm on Tuesday after 2,000 chickens died at several farms on this Caribbean island in the past five days, saying he doubts bird flu was the cause.
"There could be many reasons why those birds died. So I don't think that there's any need for panic," Health Minister John Rahael said on local television, adding that authorities were investigating.
The mass deaths have been occurring since Thursday in half a dozen large farms around Cumuto, 25 miles (40 kilometres) east of the capital, Port-of-Spain, according to farmers who did not want to be identified because they were worried of losing contracts with customers.
Rahael said the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health were sending investigators to the farms to test the sick poultry.
"I want to give an assurance to the people of Trinidad and Tobago that in this part of the world, we have not seen any indication of the bird flu," Rahael said. North America and the Caribbean have not to date been affected by that variant of the virus, which can kill humans.
