High alertness to be adopted to control bird flu

Kathmandu, March 19 . High alertness is to be adopted in the aftermath of the detection of bird flu (H5N1 virus) in some of poultry farms in Kathmandu.
A municipal-level meeting held to identify measures so that the situation could be handled effectively decided this, according to Municipal Livestock Health Division chief Dr Jay Prakash Raya Yadav.

Observation of symptoms of poultries at every farms inside a radius of three kilometers from Phutung, the affected area in Tarakeshwor-7, will be made, public awareness programmes will be launched and a ban on the import of chicken, eggs, feeds and other poultry products will be imposed for certain days.

Likewise, local health workers and health volunteers will be mobilised into two groups to launch the public awareness programme. Earlier, 28,000 poultries at the Sagar Poultry Farm owned by Shyam Sundar Basnet and 8,000 at Akash Poultry Farm of Shyam Kumar Basnet were destroyed as preventive measures, following the detection of virus. Farmers were urged to give attention to biological safety measures. Other nearby farms have also reported the virus, he said.