DoAH said vets had to struggle hard to persuade the farmer into destroying the chickens. "We even had to take the help of security personnel as the farmer was adamant to allow the cull. Police had to be deployed to take the situation under control," said Narayan Prasad Ghimire, senior veterinarian at DoAH.[break]
He said that a rapid response team has been working to finish the cull by Sunday night. The disease was confirmed on Saturday night after examination of the dead chicken at the Central Animal health Laboratory under DoAH. A meeting of district co-ordination committee led by Chief District Officer Chudamani Sharma on Saturday had decided to kill the infected chickens.
On Saturday the authorities had culled 2,610 chickens and 1,000 kg of chicken feed at Kishior Tandukar´s poultry farm at Jitpurfedi- 1 of the district, following confirmation of the virus.
"In the two days we culled over 5,000 chickens at two farms. Poultry farmers should take extra caution as the disease has been spreading quickly," he added. Dr Ghimire said that the risk of H5N1 virus spread is high especially during winter. The directorate has urged all poultry farmers to take good care of the fowls. Fowls avoiding feed, standing still with head down and excreting saliva could be suffering from H5N1 virus infection, said Ghimire.
The DoAH said that it has intensified surveillance. It has also urged poultry farmers to immediately inform vets if chickens started to die suddenly.
In December last year, the disease was confirmed in a poultry farm at Ramkot and Sitapaila VDCs of the district. The virus was detected in poultry farms in Dhading and Nuwakot, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur.
Meanwhile, the DoAH has said that people can consume chicken and eggs without any hesitation as all the infected chickens have been culled. But the office has asked the people to properly cook the chicken before eating.
Related story
Bird flu detected in eight places of Chitwan
