Ardastra Gardens, The Bahamas’ only zoo, is moving swiftly to enhance its biosecurity measures in the event of an outbreak of avian influenza in New Providence.<\/p>\n
“The major goal of enhanced biosecurity is to avoid closure of the zoo and to avoid culling of specimens,” the draft report stated.<\/p>\n
According to The World Health Organisation, there have been no reported cases of bird flu in the western hemisphere, but it is only a matter of time before it spreads to this part of the world. Definitively, there havealso been no reported cases in The Bahamas.<\/p>\n
“Most zoos around the world are pretty much their own watchdogs. We do manage our collection at all levels, including their health,” explained Nick Atchison, Zoo Director. <\/p>\n
“It’s a normal routine for us here and for any zoo around the world to run autopsies and to run tests on any of their collection of animals that die.”<\/p>\n
Presently, the collection of birds at Ardastra includes parrots, flamingos, horn bills, swans, ducks, pigeons and doves.<\/p>\n
The plan makes it clear that every effort must be made to prevent and minimise transmission of the disease to staff and visitors. <\/p>\n
Any staff member living in an area where an outbreak has occurred, is advised to use a disinfectant foot bath before re-entering the grounds. <\/p>\n
Free ranging birds, like the peacocks and flamingos, would be contained during an outbreak. <\/p>\n
In addition, birds will not be moved in or out of the collection during an outbreak.<\/p>\n
“Staff working directly with birds will be required to change into specific work clothing on the premises and change into rubber boots on arrival at work,” the report noted. <\/p>\n
Moreover those clothes would be laundered and disinfected on premises. “Bird exhibits will have individual disinfectant foot baths placed at their entry doors,” it was further outlined.<\/p>\n
The zoo would also discontinue direct contact between visitors and the bird collection, during a period of outbreak. Closure would be a considered option if the need arises.<\/p>\n
Despite the precautions the zoo has put in place, the director stressed that there has been no case of bird flu discovered among its collection.<\/p>\n
The Nassau Guardian<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The zoo is smart enough to get prepared, which is more than can be said about the Bahamas government who have made no such preparations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}