Something that is more dangerous as compared to nitrite.
While we Malaysian are affected by nitrite our neighbour, Indonesia, have more to worry about.
This is because their country have be listed as country with Bird's Flu by WHO.
Out of 359 reported death due to bird flu since 2003, a total of 159 came from Indonesia.
This is more than 44% of the total number of death so far.
This year alone the number of death is about 10. There might be more that were not reported or not identified.
Read this article :
Found at http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/health/four-year-old-boy-dies-from-bird-flu-in-indonesia/562345
Jakarta. A four-year-old boy has died of bird flu in Indonesia, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday, the 10th fatal case in the country this year.
The boy, from Bogor district in western Java, died on Dec. 6 after a week of high fever.
"He contracted the H5N1 [bird flu] virus from playing with chickens at his home," Rita Kusriastuti, head of animal-borne infectious diseases at the ministry, told AFP.
Health officials said last week they had identified a more virulent strain of the H5N1 virus in the country that has killed hundreds of thousands of ducks in recent weeks.
Indonesia has been hardest-hit by bird flu, with 159 fatalities reported since 2003 out of 359 worldwide, according to World Health Organization figures, which exclude the latest death.Bird flu typically spreads from birds to humans through direct contact, but experts fear it could mutate into a form that is easily transmissible between humans.
While in Semporna, Sabah I was given the opportunity to meet a speaker from Tawau Veterinary Department.
He confirmed that the Chinese authorities have closed its doors on the importation of raw or processed nests from all countries until these exporting countries complied to their new regulations.
Among the many countries Malaysia seems to be the best option to be allowed since they were willing to comply with these new rulings and the efforts shown by the Malaysian authorities were favourable towards achieving their requirements.
They will not be able to import any bird's related products from any country that are listed as not freed bird flu by WHO.
During his speech he stressed that there is a very strong chance that the Malaysian processed bird nests will be able to be accepted by our Chinese Importers before the coming Chinese New Year 2013.
So far there are about 20 licensed Malaysian exporters and two were from Sabah.
These 20 were able to meet those stringent guidelines that were implemented and critical to the Chinese authorities.
Most important were the nitrite level and the traceability issues.
According to him raw nests from Malaysian BH owners must be first processed and its nitrite level reduce to below 30 ppm (part per million).
The only sore point were those nests harvested from Caves. Due to their high nitrite level (700 - 1000 ppm), common to nests from cave environments, upon processed that nitrite level cannot be reduced to the required level. One day when there are new technologies in reducing the nitrite level he was very sure the issue will be resolved.
Sabah will loose about 30 to 40 million worth of yearly income from cave nest export unless something is done to reduce those nitrite level.
As for the traceability of raw nests the Sabah authorities were more incline to using GPS coordinates and not RFID or bar code.
Every BH that were license will be provided with the GPS code and the code shall be used to identify their product during processing and packaging.
BH owners in Sabah have little to fear since the issuing of license shall be free of charge.
As long as you comply with the new guidelines you have nothing to worry with the licensing issues.
However if your BH is not in compliance with the new guidelines you have very little choice but to start preparing to move within 24 months effective Jan 1st 2013.
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