A meeting of the council of ministers held on Friday took the decision after the OIE Reference Laboratory in Weybridge, UK informed Nepali officials that six out of seven samples collected from a small farm in Mechi Municipality of Jhapa tested positive for H5N1, the bird flu strain that can spread from birds to humans.
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“The cabinet has declared a Bird Flu Crisis Zone within a three kilometer radius bordering the Mechi river, Mechi municipality building in the west, Satighatta in the south and peripheral areas as an immediate measure to rein in the fatal disease, bearing in mind the sensitivity of the situation” Tek Bahadur Thapa, secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC) told a press conference. A 10km radius around the flashpoint will be kept under active surveillance. Officials have claimed that the bird flu virus will be eliminated from the area within a month.
SecretaryThapa also informed that all poultry products and related materials within the crisis zone will be immediately destroyed along with a ban on the rearing, distribution, processing, use and transport of those items for three months.
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“We will start culling an estimated 13,000 chickens being reared in the affected zone from Saturday and the process will be completed within five days,” said Prabhakar Pathak, director general of the Department of Livestock which is closely watching the situation across the country. Thirteen Rapid Response Teams comprising 65 technicians, experts and medicos will be mobilized through a focal mission office based in Jhapa.
The government had sent samples of chicken for further testing in the sophisticated UK laboratory 10 days ago after the samples tested positive at the central laboratory at Tripureswore , Kathmandu. The government had sent the samples to the UK for diagnosis at the internationally accredited laboratory, as per the international protocol.
According to Pathak, the Rapid Response Teams will carry out mopping up operations at chicken farms after sealing off the area.
In a bid to save the poultry sector in which more than Rs 16 billion has been invested so far, the government has imposed restrictions on the transport of poultry products and related materials out of the area.
According to data from the Poultry Entrepreneurs’ Forum, a poultry lobby, about 56.15 million broiler chickens and 3 million layers are produced annually by more than 2,500 poultry farm across the country. The annual egg production in the country stood at around 714.6 million pieces in fiscal year 2007/8 while chicken meat output was 58,315 tons. Poultry accounts for 4 percent of the GDP and the sector employs more than 65,000 people.
