13000 fowls to be culled within five days
Nepal recorded first-ever case of bird-flu in its history. The deadly H5N1 strain of virus has been detected at Kakarbhitta, which shares a border with West Bengal in India, in Jhapa district. The meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Friday has declared the place from the Quarantine Office to old customs office near Kakadbhitta at Ward No.10 of Mechinagar Municipality of Jhapa as the Bird Flu Crisis Zone.
The government declared it after chickens in the farm of Ramesh Karki of Ward No. 11 of the Municipality died of bird flu. Of the seven sample birds, six were infected with avian flu. According to officials, the government had sent some samples to OIE Reference Laboratories in England after some birds were found dead in the region on Jan. 10. The lab informed it through fax on Friday that the birds died of avian flu. This is the first time bird flu has been confirmed in Nepal, though the outbreak of avian flu in the Indian border town of Mattigada two weeks ago had rung alarm bells in eastern Nepal.
The area within three kms diameter with the place near Kakadbhitta as the central point including the Mechi river, the border of Nepal in the east, Mechinagar Municipality building in the west, Nakalbanda in the north and Satighatta in the south has been regarded the crisis zone.
At a press meet organized at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives here today, Secretary Tek Bahadur Thapa said, \\\\\\\"Bird flu has been seen for the first time in Kakadbhitta in Nepal\\\\\\\". All materials including fowls, fowl related products, fowl production materials, and equipment related to it in the area will be destroyed, it was informed. There are estimated 13,000 fowls in the area, the ministry said.
No one will be allowed to keep fowls, transport, produce, process and sell the fowl related products as well as to do related works including consumption, use and transport in the area during the crisis.
Works were started to control it by forming five task forces including experts from the ministry in the area, said Secretary Thapa. The task force will bury 13,000 fowls in ditches within five days. The buried fowls will be monitored continually for three years.
The ministry has made a preliminary estimate to complete all the works within one month and eliminate the disease and its virus from the area.The Department of Livestock had sent for test in a British lab on January 10. The Department will make direct monitoring in the ten km periphery of the area as an intense scrutinisation area. The concerned owners will be given compensation for the destroyed fowls, fowl related products and materials in the area, the Ministry said.
The Ministry said among commercial fowls, the mother hen will be paid Rs. 500, broiler Rs. 250 and other fowls Rs. 100. Ministry Secretary Thapa said no bird flu has been seen in other parts of the country and the government has adopted high alert not to allow it spread. He said so far it has not been transmitted to human beings.
Manas Banerjee, coordinator-director at the Avian Influenza Control Project under the Health Ministry said the birds will be killed by breaking their necks or administering carbon monoxide and then they will be cremated. \\\\\\\"We have already trained our staff how to do it,\\\\\\\" Banerjee said.
He said the government has already sent a medical team to the region and will deploy a team of 65 individuals to cull the birds from Saturday. There will be an additional 65 supervisors to oversee the culling. All will be given anti-viral pills and Personnel Protective Equipment for their safety.
\\\\\\\"We have also launched awareness campaign in the region urging locals not to touch dead birds,\\\\\\\" Banerjee said. Avian flu is passed from bird to bird, but on rare occasions, it is transmitted to humans also. \\\\\\\"But chances of humans being infected is extremely low,\\\\\\\" he said.
What is bird flu ?
Avian influenza, or \\\\\\\"bird flu\\\\\\\", is a contagious disease of animals caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs. Despite the death or destruction of an estimated 150 million birds, the virus is now considered endemic in many parts of Indonesia and Viet Nam and in some parts of Cambodia, China, Thailand, and possibly also the Lao People\\\\\\\'s Democratic Republic.
Direct contact with infected poultry, or surfaces and objects contaminated by their faeces, is presently considered the main route of human infection. Normal temperatures used for cooking (70oC in all parts of the food) will kill the virus.
Some 65,000 people are involved in the fowl business where Rs. 16 billion has been invested. It has four percent contribution in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
(Posted on 17th January, 2009)
Source: nepaldisasrer.org |
