Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Bird Flu Update #2

OLD FORGOTTEN POST

Sindh health department has once again alerted the health concerns throughout the province following the reports about confirmed H5N1 strain of Avian influenza in chicken in the NWFP. Additional Health Secretary said that no case of bird flu was reported to the health department till Monday evening, but in the wake of possibility for an outbreak of the deadly Avian influenza in the region, the district health officials had already been asked to take all precautionary measures.

According to the Ministry of Food and Livestock the virus is of a low pathogenic avian influenza and is of N-type virus. The Ministry had sent the samples to the World Reference Laboratory in Weybridge, London, to determine if it is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain.

As the process of slaughtering of 16,000 hens and 11,000 eggs on the Abbottabad poultry farm began on Monday, the Livestock Department said that polyphonic bags filled with carbon dioxide gas would be used to kill the birds. They will then be buried in an eight-foot hole, which will first be sprayed with chemicals to protect the virus from spreading.

Livestock experts told Daily Times that eggs with dropping on them should be cleaned properly before handling. People should clean eggs properly as the bird flu virus could be transferred through finger(s).


CWS-P/A is currently watching the bird flu situation in the region and more news will be shared.


Disaster Response Unit (DRU)

Church World Service-Pakistan/Afghanistan


Source: www.dailytimes.com.pk

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