Dominican merchants closed a popular border market that caters to Haitians on Monday, punishing their impoverished neighbor for banning Dominican poultry and egg imports following an outbreak of avian flu.
The market in the Dominican town of Dajabon will remain shuttered until Port-au-Prince lifts a ban on Dominican poultry imposed last month after 115 chickens tested positive for the H5N2 strain of bird flu, according to Freddy Morillo, chief of the Dominican Association of Egg Distributors.
About a dozen more chickens tested positive for the highly contagious strain, which poses no threat to humans, and were killed this week.
Haiti's government angered Dominican authorities by seeking independent confirmation that the virus has been eradicated. Officials from both nations met over the weekend but failed to reach an agreement.
The Dajabon market, a key trading point for the two countries, which share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, was empty on Monday. Only a few people were spotted on Massacre River bridge, which is normally flooded with thousands of Haitians who are allowed to cross into the Dominican Republic on Mondays and Fridays to shop.
Jolivier Toussaint, director of imports for Haiti's Agriculture Ministry, decried the boycott and said it would hurt both Dominican merchants and Haitian buyers.
"As soon as the Dominicans treat the animals they have and it is approved by the international community, Haiti will have no problem" lifting the poultry ban, he said.
The ban has inflated prices, exacerbating already dire Haitian food shortages. Customs officials have seized and destroyed thousands of eggs, chickens and fighting roosters that Haitian buyers smuggled across the porous border.
Meanwhile the Dominican government is looking for other Latin American customers for the roughly 1 million eggs and hundreds of thousands of chickens Haiti usually imports each day.
The strain, H5N2, is not a danger to humans, but has caused outbreaks across Asia, prompting the killing of more than 5 million birds in Japan since 2005. The more virulent H5N1 strain has killed 216 people worldwide, mostly in Asia, according to the World Health Organization.
The market in the Dominican town of Dajabon will remain shuttered until Port-au-Prince lifts a ban on Dominican poultry imposed last month after 115 chickens tested positive for the H5N2 strain of bird flu, according to Freddy Morillo, chief of the Dominican Association of Egg Distributors.
About a dozen more chickens tested positive for the highly contagious strain, which poses no threat to humans, and were killed this week.
Haiti's government angered Dominican authorities by seeking independent confirmation that the virus has been eradicated. Officials from both nations met over the weekend but failed to reach an agreement.
The Dajabon market, a key trading point for the two countries, which share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, was empty on Monday. Only a few people were spotted on Massacre River bridge, which is normally flooded with thousands of Haitians who are allowed to cross into the Dominican Republic on Mondays and Fridays to shop.
Jolivier Toussaint, director of imports for Haiti's Agriculture Ministry, decried the boycott and said it would hurt both Dominican merchants and Haitian buyers.
"As soon as the Dominicans treat the animals they have and it is approved by the international community, Haiti will have no problem" lifting the poultry ban, he said.
The ban has inflated prices, exacerbating already dire Haitian food shortages. Customs officials have seized and destroyed thousands of eggs, chickens and fighting roosters that Haitian buyers smuggled across the porous border.
Meanwhile the Dominican government is looking for other Latin American customers for the roughly 1 million eggs and hundreds of thousands of chickens Haiti usually imports each day.
The strain, H5N2, is not a danger to humans, but has caused outbreaks across Asia, prompting the killing of more than 5 million birds in Japan since 2005. The more virulent H5N1 strain has killed 216 people worldwide, mostly in Asia, according to the World Health Organization.
No comments:
Post a Comment