A container ship was placed under quarantine at the Freeport yesterday evening after stevedores noticed dead birds on deck and raised the alarm.
Three dead birds were taken off the Norsuk and transferred to the government's slaughterhouse where this morning they will be subjected to an autopsy and tests which will determine whether they were infected with bird flu.
If the tests prove positive, samples will be sent to the UK for further tests in order to find out what strain of avian influenza it is.
Workers who spoke to The Times said it was not rare for dead birds to be found on decks of ships. A government agriculture spokesman said that whatever the outcome of the tests, an outbreak of bird flu is certainly not on the cards.
The first reports of the dead birds came in at around 7 p.m. after a number of stevedores had boarded the Limassol-registered vessel. They disembarked when they saw the birds and informed their General Workers' Union representatives who in turn called the authorities.
The Civil Protection Department and a team from the Food and Veterinary Division, led by Mireille Vella, rushed to the scene, putting into operation the contingency plan they had only just practised last Friday. The area around Terminal two, where the ship was berthed, was cordoned off and a mass decontamination unit set up.
The 21 stevedores who had come in contact with the ship were all decontaminated and by 9.30 p.m. they were allowed to go home.
The crew of the ship, on the other hand, were placed in quarantine and will only be allowed to resume their operations if the birds test negative.
Contact was made with the ship's local agents in order to track the vessel's movements. Sources told The Times that the Norsuk had left from Taiwan where the first case of avian flu was discovered in a smuggled cargo of exotic birds last Thursday.
After that it sailed for two-and-a-half months through a number of Asian ports to reach Jedda in Saudi Arabia, from were it came directly to Malta. After Malta it was headed for Algiers.
Despite the precautions, the authorities are cautioning against unnecessary alarm. "The fact that these birds were found dead on this ship means nothing," said Randolf Spiteri, a spokesman for the Parliamentary Secretariat for Agriculture and Fisheries. "Migratory birds are known to rest aboard such ships and are often found dead.
"Nevertheless, all the necessary precautions have been taken and whatever the outcome of the tests an outbreak is most certainly not on the cards."
He called on the public to exercise good judgement, pointing out, for example that there was absolutely no reason not to eat poultry.
"I would just like to make one thing clear before some serious problems are created for local poultry producers: there is nothing wrong with local poultry and this has been certified by the authorities."