Nepal Issue of bird flu enters parliament

Issue of bird flu enters parliament

By Gita Sapkota

Kathmandu, Feb 15 Issues pertaining to bird flu entered the Natural Resources Committee of the legislature parliament for the first time Wednesday. The committee called representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Veterinary Health Directorate and Department of Veterinary Services and asked them about the recent spread of bird flu in the eastern parts of the country. It asked the authorities what they were doing to control the flu. The committee directed them to strengthen the quarantine, surveillance and monitoring mechanisms in border areas and conduct mass awareness programmes at the grassroots level. The committee asked the government to increase the budget for programmes designed to control bird flu. The Veterinary Health Directorate has confirmed six places of the nation as bird-flu affected areas this year. A few days ago, the government found that a sample of crows that had died in an unusual manner in the premises of the City Hall in Kathmandu showed bird flu viruses. Dr. Ram Krishna Khatiwada, programme director of the Veterinary Health Directorate, said that a total of 8,746 chickens were culled and 2,958 eggs were destroyed, while dumping the feed. He said that no bird flu was detected in domestic fowls in Kathmandu at the moment. Just one and a half week ago, 3,500 chickens had died of the H5N1 virus in PK Poultry farm in Itahari. After it was confirmed that more chickens of PK Poultry farm were infected with bird flu, 4,853 chickens were culled last Sunday. Eggs and chicken feed were also destroyed completely. The division has already completed its operation in three bird flu zones places of Jhapa district: Charpane, Arjundhara and Pakhamari as well as Panchami Bazaar- border point of Ilam and Panchthar, Itahari and Khanar VDCs of Sunsari, Dr. Khatiwada said. The District Administration Office of Sunsari has banned sale of chickens in the district till Saturday after detection of the avian flu in the local poultry farm. According to Dr. Khatiwada almost all bird flu infected areas border with India. The government is maintaining surveillance and carrying out monitoring in the range of seven kilometers from where the bird flu was detected between past 90 days. The latest spread of the bird flu raised alarms as it happened in months after the government declared the nation free of bird flu.  http://gorkhapatra.org.np/rising.detail.php?article_id=63608&cat_id=4