Caretaker Agriculture Minister Ghazi Zeaiter reassured the Lebanese people in a statement to LBCI that the ship transporting cows infected with Anthrax will not enter Lebanon.
News websites had reported that “the ship ‘Rahma’ left the port of Istanbul after being banned from unloading its cargo of cows suspected to be infected by Anthrax, and is expected to arrive to Beirut port on Sunday, even though its documents say that its destination is Gibraltar.”
In turn, the Director General of Customs Badri Daher told the state-run National News Agency that no ship transporting cows has headed from Turkey to Beirut so far, adding that in case of any ship entering the Lebanese waters, the customs will directly head in its direction to take the necessary measures.
For his part, Head of the Imports and Exports as well as the Veterinary Quarantine Department at the Agriculture Ministry, Dr. Yahia Khattar denied this rumor categorically, noting that it lacks any scientific basis. He explained that “said ship had arrived to Turkey from Brazil before Eid al-Adha, and was transporting Brazilian cows.”
“Even from a scientific and purely medical standpoint, the journey from Brazil to Turkey takes up to 25 days, while the period of keeping an Anthrax infection reaches up to 14 days,” he continued, stating that no ship transporting cows will arrive to Beirut port from Turkey.
“Any trader cannot import cattle without informing the concerned Lebanese authorities; therefore, any ship transporting cattle from Atlantic Ocean into the Mediterranean requires at least three weeks and in case these cows were in fact infected with Anthrax, they would have died on board,” he added.