March 23, 2006

Afghanistan culls 200 chickens due to bird flu

Health authorities carried out Afghanistan's first chicken culling Wednesday (Mar 22) since an outbreak of the deadly bird flu virus was confirmed in this war-ravaged Central Asian nation earlier this month, an Agricultural Ministry official said.

About 200 chickens were killed and dumped into a deep, dry well in Tashti Barche, a town about 15 kilometres west of Kabul, said Afghan veterinary health director Azizullah Esmoni.

The killings followed UN confirmation this month that six chickens had tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus in Kabul and the eastern city of Jalalabad.

The UN also announced Monday that two more cases of H5 bird flu were found in a chicken in Kabul and a dead crow in eastern Kunar province, but further testing must be performed at a UN Food and Agriculture laboratory in Italy to confirm the substrain of the virus.

Esmoni said several people in Tashti Barche voluntarily handed over their chickens to be culled because they feared an outbreak of the deadly virus. Further culling is expected to be carried out during the next few days.