Inaugurating a two-day International Poultry Congress and exhibition of poultry products, organised by the Pakistan Poultry Association here on Friday morning, he said the government was taking all possible steps to help the industry recover from the effects of the crisis.

A sum of Rs150 million had been paid as compensation to the poultry farmers affected by the disease. Special allocations had also been made for upgrading diagnostic laboratories, he added. He said the Federal Poultry Board had also recommended five-year income tax exemption for the poultry farms, advancing of soft loans to the farmers, concessions in duty on exports and duty-free import of evaporative cooling systems and vaccine for the revival of the poultry industry. Efforts were being made to implement the recommendations in letter and spirit.

The government also planned to launch a massive awareness campaign for prevention and control of infectious diseases.

When a hot-zone country starts to recover from an outbreak of H5N1, its media seem to drop the subject. We certainly haven't heard anything from Turkey or Egypt lately. But it would be useful to know what's really going on in those countries. Even the speeches of agriculture ministers are better than dead silence