February 28, 2006

Pakistan confirms bird flu strain on poultry farms
 

Pakistan has detected H5-type bird flu in chickens on two poultry farms and authorities are testing whether the virus is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, officials said.

The broad H5 virus category only kills birds, unlike the highly pathogenic H5N1 type which infected and killed humans in Asia.

Workers used poison gas to cull 25,000 birds on the farms in a north-western province, government and industry officials said.

Pakistan had sent samples from infected birds for testing at the EU Reference Laboratory for avian influenza in England and results are expected soon, Agriculture Ministry spokesman Mohammad Afzal said.

The affected farms have also been quarantined, said Rana Mohammed Akhlaq, livestock commissioner at the same ministry. There are no plans yet to ban movement of poultry, he added.

He said farmers would decide whether to kill chickens in other farms in the area, although culling would be compulsory if results indicated that it was indeed the H5N1 virus.

Pakistan Poultry Association chairman Raza Mahmood Khursand is urging the poultry industry in the affected areas to practise voluntary culling to protect the health of the poultry industry.

Bird flu vaccines have been ordered from abroad and an all-out vaccination campaign will be launched as soon as the first consignment arrives, he added.

Pakistan last week banned imports of poultry and live birds from India, Iran and France, after all three countries reported H5N1 cases. Chicken accounts for up to 45 percent of meat consumption in Pakistan.