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Sabir Veliyev: â€œAll imported European products must be seriously examined on borderâ€

06 June 2011 13:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Kamala Guliyeva â€“ APA. Azerbaijan imports few vegetables from Europe, most part of vegetables is imported from Iran and Turkey, department chief of the Ministry of Agriculture Sabir Veliyev told APA. He said sources of dangerous enteric infection are not known yet. â€œDifferent toxic substances might be used during cultivation of these vegetables. Sometimes people donâ€™t wash and pasteurize the vegetables. On the other hand, if producers use chemical means against plant diseases and pests, there will be no probability of infection. Those infected vegetables might be incorrectly stored or genetically modified. There could be such cases in genetic modification. If genes of Arctic Ocean lives are used, it can cause different virus diseases in the vegetables with fatal case for the humanâ€.

Veliyev said State Customs Committee, Health Ministry and Phytosanitary Service of the Ministry of Agriculture are taking necessary measures to prevent dangerous infections crossing into Azerbaijan. â€œAll overseas products must be seriously examined. If virus is identified, import of these products must be banned immediatelyâ€.

The department chief said there is no concern about fruits and vegetables produced in Azerbaijan. â€œToxic substances â€“ pesticide and fertilizer are negligibly used in Azerbaijan. Our products are ecologically cleaner than other European countries. It needs to wash all these products before eating because there are many microorganisms, funguses and bacterins in the nature. It needs to wash vegetables and fruits, pasteurize in hot water and then save in refrigerator. No microorganism can live in hot or zero-temperature environmentâ€.

Azerbaijani Health Ministry calls on the population to be careful while using fruits and vegetables. Chief of the sanitary-epidemiological control sector of the ministry Victor Gasimov told APA not depending on existence or non-existence of viruses, the people should observe sanitary and hygienic rules. â€œThey need to wash hands and wash the fruits and vegetables with hot waterâ€. Gasimov said epidemiological situation is stable in the country and the ministry has not received any complaint yet.

Death tall of enteric infection in Germany reaches 21. The infection was first identified in northern Germany. The World Health Organization said the virus was identified in 10 European countries. One died in Sweden. Earlier experts said cucumber imported from Spain caused the infection, but now they have doubts concerning grain crops cultivated in Lower Saxony. Results of laboratory investigation will be known on June 7.