THE HAGUE: Dutch customs have deployed two special bird flu dogs at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport to check flights from high-risk countries for poultry, the authorities said yesterday.
The dogs, German shepherd Bo and Belgian shepherd Judy, are checking flights from countries where the bird flu virus has been found such as China, Thailand, Egypt, Russia and Turkey, the Dutch ministry of finance, which controls the customs service, said in a statement.
They are trained to sniff out all kinds of poultry, feathers and eggs. The dogs have been working on Schiphol airport since May this year. In Europe only the Czech customs are also working with specialised bird flu dogs, the authorities here said.
According to the customs service this year they have already confiscated 1,626 kilos of prepared poultry meat, 203 kilos of raw poultry meat and 245 eggs. – AFP