All-clear for birds, now they’re hunted

By Athena Karseras

THE last farm-bred partridges for the season were released yesterday after rigorous testing for cancer-causing substances.

On Friday, Government Laboratories gave the green light to the Veterinary Service for birds from three farms to be released for this weekend’s hunting.

Partridges from a further seven farms will be freed in January once the hunting season is over. Veterinary Service sources said the delayed release will give the partridges time to adapt to their natural environment before the new hunting season begins.

According to the vets, the ten farms had been re-examined after routine testing showed traces of two carcinogenic substances in birds from those farms. The partridges are treated with the two chemicals, used to prevent disease, soon after hatching until they are about 12 weeks old.

One of the chemicals, Ronizatol, is banned in Cyprus and most countries since it has been found to cause cancer. The second substance, Dimitrizatol, also believed to be dangerous for human consumption, can still be legally imported.

In mid-November there was an outcry over a batch of partridges from one particular farm when they were found to have traces of Ronizatol in their system.

At the time, the head of the Veterinary Service, Pavlos Economides, said the birds would not be slaughtered as they would be fit for human consumption once the chemical passed out of their system.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.