Tissue samples were sent to England after around 6,500 chickens in two poultry farms in Sunsari and chicken of locals in Fakfok VDC-2, Ilam died suddenly. The report from England received on Sunday confirmed that the fowls had died due to bird flu. [break]
Around 3,500 chicken at PK Poultry Farm in Itahari-6, Bajraha and 3,000 at Pathibhara Poultry Farm in Khanar had started dying since January 10. There are still around 7,000 chicken at PK and 2,000 at Pathibhara. A team led by the chief of the Regional Livestock Disease Investigation Office, Biratnagar, Bolraj Acharya reached Khanar Sunday evening and the team will start culling the remaining fowls Monday.
The locals are miffed at the late arrival of the team. The delay has been attributed to late delivery of antiviral medication Tamiflu, to be used by the staffers involved in culling as precaution, by the Department of Health Services. "The culling has been delayed because there is risk involved in entering the farms without taking Tamiflu.
Even those wearing protective suits can sometimes face risk while entering the farm," explained the chief of the District Public Health Office (DPHO), Sunsari, Dr Sriram Sah. The officials said only the chickens at the two farms in Sunsari with confirmed cases of bird flu will be culled for now. A team under the chief of the District Livestock Office, Kumar Singh Khatri, has been deployed to cull fowls in Ilam.
A team of veterinarians had visited the poultry farms in Itahari and Khanar on Saturday. The veterinarians had said Ranikhet and Gambaro diseases could also have caused the deaths of the fowls. A chicken infected with Ranikhet suffers from diarrhea, visible tiredness, head spin and paralysis, the symptoms also shared by those suffering from Gambaro.
The government provides Rs 130 per chicken culled for bird flu but Pathibhara claimed to have invested around Rs 500 for each of its layers while PK claimed it invested Rs 1600 for each parent layer.
Locals in Khanar have been worried after bird flu was confirmed there. Munal English Boarding School, Khanar has been shut for two days for fear of human transmission. DPHO Sunsari said people of 50 households around the two farms will have their health checked from Monday while awareness campaign about avian flu will be launched. "We will be extra careful about the persons with common flu in the vicinity of the farms," Sah said.
The reason for bird flu infection in Sunsari and Ilam districts have not been ascertained yet but veterinarians attribute it to import of fowls from India and Bangladesh.
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