/ 20 February 2006

Bird flu: India continues mass fowl slaughter

Indian health officials went door-to-door on Monday searching for people possibly sickened by the deadly H5N1 bird-flu virus, while hundreds of German troops disposed of dead chickens in a desperate attempt to contain the fast-moving disease.

The European Union’s agriculture ministers, meanwhile, met to discuss ways to combat bird flu — such as vaccinating poultry — as the H5N1 strain spread to a half-dozen EU nations.

The EU’s top poultry producer, France, is among those grappling with its first reported case of bird flu, and the continent’s chicken farmers said consumption has fallen, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Nearly 250 German troops cleared away dead birds from the Baltic island of Ruegen, where the country’s first cases of the disease were confirmed in wild birds last week. Tornado jets flew over head.

With a mass slaughtering in India entering its second day, plumes of black smoke filled the air in parts of now-deserted poultry farms on Monday around Navapur, more than 400km north-east of Mumbai, as farmers burned their dead chickens. Heavy earth movers also dug deep pits at some poultry farms.

Workers have already dumped more than 200 000 bird carcasses along with the gloves, goggles and blue gowns used by health teams. The pits were coated with chemicals, including disinfectant, before being filled in.

The government now plans to slaughter about 700 000 birds within a 3km radius of the outbreak, said Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh after touring the area. Officials had earlier said a half-million birds would be slaughtered.

Deshmukh said 48 poultry farms will be emptied and remain shut for three months.

Searching for signs

Meanwhile, inspectors visited homes and farms surrounding Navapur, a town of 30 000 people, searching for signs of illness and making sure even chickens being raised at private homes are killed and properly disposed of.

”It’s like a war — they come in completely covered with masks and goggles and check if the carcasses are disposed properly,” said Ghulam Vhora, a member of a Navapur poultry farmers’ association.

Since early Sunday, more than 200 000 chickens have been slaughtered around Navapur, a major poultry farming region, where the H5N1 strain of bird flu was found in some of the 30 000 dead chickens. Checkpoints have also been set up to stop people carrying poultry out of the area.

The Indian poultry industry could suffer badly if the virus spreads. India exports about $84,4-million-worth of poultry and eggs annually, mostly eggs and egg powder to Europe, Japan and the Middle East.

”There must be no movement of poultry out of Navapur,” said OP Tiwari, a health officer in neighbouring Surat district.

Local officials near the affected area reported a 27-year-old poultry farm owner died of bird-flu-like symptoms, though tests have yet to determine the cause of death.

Samples from at least eight other people hospitalised for flu-like symptoms near Navapur are also being tested and results are expected later this week.

Pandemic fears

The H5N1 virus has devastated poultry stocks and killed at least 92 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation. Most human cases of the disease have been linked to contact with infected birds. But scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted between humans, possibly sparking a pandemic.

Authorities in India’s part of Kashmir on Monday suspended the import of poultry from the rest of the country, and said no infections have been reported in the Himalayan region.

Neighbouring Nepal and Pakistan have also banned poultry imports from India, while Bangladesh said it will step up surveillance along its border with India to prevent birds from being smuggled into the country.

Sri Lankan health officials said on Monday that the country is at high risk of contracting bird flu because of migrating birds from India.

”If we have to be fully prepared, we need all the resources which we are lacking at the moment,” said SKR Amarasekara, the chief of Sri Lanka’s Animal Production and Health Department.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation said it has signed a pact with Laos to support a three-year programme to combat bird flu, the Laotian state news agency KPL reported on Monday.

The $2,9-million agreement is aimed at strengthening ”legal and regulatory frameworks, veterinary capacity, and disease control and surveillance systems”, as well as public awareness of the disease in cities and the countryside, it said.

Africa

Egyptian Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza on Monday banned the transport of live poultry across the country in an attempt to contain the spread of bird flu, official news agency Mena reported.

Transport of all kinds of poultry is to be prohibited for two weeks, except through a permit granted by the higher commission in charge of combating the spread of the deadly virus.

Only the transport of birds that have been slaughtered in officially authorised facilities will be allowed, Mena reported.

Since the first bird-flu cases were reported in Egypt on Friday, the authorities have imposed a ban on selling live poultry, allowing only frozen poultry to be brought to market and calling on citizens to get rid of their domestic fowl.

The H5N1 virus was first detected among birds in three of Egypt’s 26 provinces, including Cairo, later spreading to at least nine. No human cases have been detected.

Authorities ordered on Sunday that the Cairo Zoo be closed down for two weeks after tests showed that two birds at the facility had died of avian flu.

At least 5 000 birds have been slaughtered in four provinces, while the slaughter of 56 000 farm chickens is under way in the northern province of Dakahlia, state-owned al-Ahram reported on Monday.

Over two million people are employed in the poultry sector in Egypt, estimated to be worth more than $27-billion. Rearing chicken and pigeons is considered a profit-generating activity for many low-income Egyptians.

Expected losses for this season stand between $1,7-billion and $2,7-billion, al-Ahram reported.

Nigeria on Monday confirmed that the bird-flu virus has spread to three new northern states and the capital, Abuja, bringing the total number of areas affected to seven. — Sapa-AP, Sapa-AFP