Britain urges ban on exotic bird trade
Edited by Kovis


▲Italy's Minister of Agricultural and Forestry Policies Gianni Alemanno (L), President of Coldiretti (Italian Farmers Association) Paolo Bedoni, eat chicken during the "International Forum on Agriculture and Food", in Cernobbio, Italy, October 22, 2005. Many people in Italy are expressing their concern about the spreading of bird flu.

Britain is pressing the European Union to stop the trade in exotic birds among all its 25 members after a parrot infected with the highly pathogenic bird flu virus strain H5N1 was discovered and died in quarantine in the country.

The parrot, which was imported from South America, arrived in Britain last month and died a couple of days ago. Scientists, who analyzed the bird for more than 48 hours, have found that it had H5N1 bird flu, which killed more than 60 people in Asia after outbreaks in 2003, said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The incident has prompted fresh concerns about the way the virus can spread. Previously, attention was mainly given to the spread of the disease by migrating birds, the Observer reported on Sunday.

"Any decision on restricting it (bird trade) is a matter for the EU. However, we are urging the Commission to review its position to take account of regional and area risks following recent reports," said a spokeswoman for the Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs.

In 2001, 28,500 exotic birds such as macaws and cockatoos were imported into the United Kingdom. By 2003 the figure had mounted to 83,000 - a threefold increase. In the same year, more than 10,000 parrots were imported - a 50 percent increase over 2002.

But these figures are believed to be dwarfed by the illegal trade in smuggled birds.

The EU is now the world's biggest market for wild-caught parrots.

A total of two million exotic birds are traded in the EU every year. The society believes that hundreds of thousands of birds are smuggled illegally into Britain every year.

Recently, there have been public concerns that the expansion of the EU has made it easier to smuggle exotic birds from Eastern to Western Europe. There have already been several cases of cross-border parrot smuggling between Bulgaria and Turkey.

The Department of Food and Environment has pledged to increase the number of random searches, sniffer dogs and customs personnel as part of a renewed campaign to clamp down on the trade in wild animals.

Vocabulary
exotic 国外的
pathogenic 病原的
quarantine 检疫
macaw 金刚鹦鹉
cockatoo 凤头鹦鹉
threefold 三倍的

 

 

World in Pictures
Photo source: ImagineChina

	Buffalo race 水牛竞技大赛 Thai farmers race water buffalos to the finish line at the Chonburi Buffalo Races in Chonburi, about 85 km east of Bangkok, Thailand, October 17. The annual event celebrates the start of the rice harvest and is held on the night before full moon of the 11th lunar month.
	Acrobatic motorcycling 上海上演高空"摩托杂技秀" Master acrobats from the Monti Circus perform motorcycling feats on a thin steel wire at a carnival show in Shanghai, October 23.
	A metal wedding cake 美国电焊工举办"金属婚礼" Welder Stephen Roy cuts a piece of metal off an aluminum wedding cake with help from his wife, Tammy, at Yarde Metals in Southington, Conn., October 22. In-house weddings are among several unique benefits at Yarde Metals.
	A walk on the tower top 悉尼建成268米高空行走道 In this photo released by Skywalk, the first adventurous spectators look at the city from a very lofty walkway perched a dizzying 268 meters up a landmark downtown tower in Sydney, Australia, October 17. Skywalk is a 160-meter circuit running around the Sydney Tower and includes stomach-turning glass platforms at two points.
	Cat nap in the pumpkin 小猫在万圣节南瓜中午睡 This Jack-o-Lantern in Sidney, Ohio, may be scary, but it doesn't seem to bother a kitten who decided to take an afternoon nap inside it, October 14, 2005.

 

 

World in Words
Collected & translated by Beverly

"People are worried about traffic, gas prices and getting a babysitter. They don't have the concentration to sit through a whole movie anymore."
"人们要担心交通问题, 汽油价格还有给孩子请保姆的问题. 他们已经没有精力去电影院欣赏一整场电影了. "
An American analyst tries to find out why box office receipts are going down.
--美一分析家试图找出电影票房收入每况愈下的原因.

"Wolves do have a role to play."
"狼群的确发挥了很大的作用. "
Wildlife experts are stunned by the changes they have seen in wolf biology in Yellowstone National Park. You can see a lush curtain of willows in Yellowstone again.
--野生动物专家惊叹于狼群给黄石国家公园生态环境所带来的变化. 如今的黄石又是绿柳成荫了.

"For many pet owners, their animals are as loved and pampered as their own children, and deserve to be groomed and cared for with the best products."
"许多人把宠物当成自己的孩子一样来疼爱, 认为它们理应享受最好的产品. "
A study by Mintel shows that consumption of pampering products for man's furry friends has exploded worldwide.
--据明特尔(英国一市场调查研究机构)的调查显示, 全球的宠物奢侈品消费均大幅上涨.

"Five years ago you never heard about this, now you can talk about it, and it's OK."
"五年前, 你闻所未闻; 而现在, 你大可高谈阔论, 没有关系. "
Thousands of single women are gravitating to sperm bank web sites, where donor profiles can be sorted by medical history, ethnic background and more.
--精子库网站越来越受单身女性的欢迎, 在网上, 捐赠者的资料可根据医疗史, 民族背景及其他情况来分类.