Officials at DoAH, however, said that any decision regarding the ban would be taken by a meeting of stakeholders scheduled for Wednesday.
"Though a decision would be taken on Wednesday, the possibility of removing the ban is slim at a time when the virus continues to infect farms," Dr Narayan Prasad Ghimire, spokesperson of the DoAH, said. [break]
The disease has been detected in scores of poultry farms of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur even after the directorate imposed the ban. The DoAH said that the virus has been detected in three poultry farms of Kathmandu and Bhaktapur on Tuesday as well. A rapid response team of the District Veterinary Office Kathmandu culled 596 chickens in a poultry farm owned by Bhakta Bahadur Bhujel of Purano Naikap-4. Over 1,400 chickens at the farm had already died due to the disease.
Likewise, another team of vet technicians culled 4,275 chickens in a poultry farm of Pabitra Lal Shrestha of Thankot after the virus was confirmed. Shrestha told vet officials that he had 6,000 chickens. The District Veterinary Office, Bhaktapur said the vet technicians culled 2,940 chickens in a poultry farm owned by Arjun Rawat of Nagarkot-7.
Meanwhile, the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) under the Department of Health Services (DoHS) said that no case of human infection has been reported yet. The laboratory conducted tests on samples collected from five people of Bhaktapur. "None of them were found to be infected as all the samples tested negative," Dr Geeta Shakya, director of the NPHL, said.
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