July 31, 2006

India to declare itself free of bird flu

India will soon declare itself bird flu free with no new cases reported in the past three months, India's agriculture minister said Friday (Jul 28).

India also plans to begin selling a poultry vaccine for the deadly H5N1 virus in the next two to three months after completing tests, Indian Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told health and agriculture ministers from ten Asian nations.

The ministers met Friday in the Indian capital to prepare for a possible bird flu pandemic, with proposals ranging from encouraging personal hygiene to gathering money and manpower.

In a joint declaration, the 11 Asian nations agreed to "collaborate in efforts to develop and produce drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests for avian and pandemic influenza".

They also decided to "improve bio-safety, infection control and bio-security measures" to prevent the spread of animal diseases such as bird flu to humans.

The participants were from India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Indonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Early this month, India developed a vaccine against the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, four months after an outbreak in the country resulted in the slaughter of tens of thousands of chickens.

"India will declare itself bird flu free on Aug 10 as no new cases have been reported in the past three months and authorities have completed cleaning and sanitation operations in the infected areas," said P.M.A. Hakeem, secretary in India's Agriculture Ministry.