Directorate of Animal Health (DoAH) of Western Region confirmed that the H5N1 bird flu virus was detected in chickens in the poultry farm owned by Basanta Shrestha of lower Gagangouda in the municipality. [break]
According to DoAh Director Bingshi Sharma, a team of vets from DoAH destroyed as many as 555 chickens at the farm.
“We destroyed the chickens to prevent the spread of the virus,” commented director Sharma.
After chickens in the farm started to die rapidly a week ago, Shrestha, the owner of the poultry farm, had brought dead chicken samples to the regional Animal Health Laboratory. The laboratory had forwarded the sample to the central laboratory at Kathmandu for bird flu virus verification.
“The central laboratory confirmed the presence of the H5N1 virus in the chickens of the farm on Monday evening. We immediately culled the chickens to prevent spread of the virus to humans and chickens in nearby farms,” said Sharma.
Shrestha has been raising chickens for the last eight years. “This time, I had around 700 chickens in the farm but all of them either died or were killed. The chickens had started to die since the last 20 days,” said he.
“The disease has hit my business hard. As per the rules I cannot bring new chickens for the next three months. I have nowhere to turn for help.”
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