Bukit Merah resort suffers RM1m losses
The Star, 23 Mar 2006

TAIPING: The Bukit Merah Laketown Resort lost RM1mil in one month following the recent bird flu outbreak that made visitors avoid the resort, which has a bird park. 

Resort general manager Calvin Ho said that 249 birds at the park including a “talking parrot” worth RM50,000 had to be destroyed after the bird flu virus was detected there last week.  

The bird park is temporarily closed, he told Bernama yesterday.  Ho said between 4,500 and 5,000 people visit the resort during school holidays but lately the number dropped to 2,000. 

On the statement by Agriculture and Agro-Based Industries Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin that the Government would not pay compensation for the birds destroyed at the park, Ho said the company would not make an issue of the matter. 

Despite the considerable loss, the birds had to be destroyed to ensure the safety of the people, he said, adding that visitors need not be alarmed that they might catch the disease now that the birds were gone. 

Down south, the Johor Zoo is on the alert for signs of bird flu. 

“Each bird is checked every day for signs of the disease and our personnel have been instructed to be more attentive to the health of the birds,” zoo supervisor Mohd Sham Mahdon told The Star. 

Any dead bird will be sent to the Veterinary Services Department for tests, he said.