The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will set up a new quarantine center at the UAE-Oman border to prevent the possible entry of the H5N1 bird flu virus, the Gulf News reported on Wednesday.

The budget for the center to be built at the Al Khatim Al Shakkla border post near Al Ain, a city adjacent to the border with Oman, has been approved, said Majid Al Mansouri, spokesman of the National Committee for Emergency Response to Bird Flu.

"The quarantine center will be responsible for ensuring that all live birds, poultry and poultry products entering the country from Oman are free from the bird flu virus and other infections," Al Mansouri was quoted as saying.

Any shipment of live birds, poultry and poultry products from any country, including Kuwait where the existence of the H5N1 bird flu virus has been confirmed, will be quarantined and dealt with under the National Avian Influenza Crisis Management Plan, he added.

The UAE government will also add three additional teams to the existing two that are currently monitoring migratory and other wild birds in the country, and no case had been reported in wild birds so far, Al Mansouri said, adding that regular inspections of poultry farms are carried out.

Source: Xinhua