August 8, 2013

The Nepalese government has decided to lift the ban it had imposed earlier on the supply and sales of products in Kathmandu from Thursday (Aug 1), bowing down to pressure from poultry businessmen.

A meeting between the government agency and the agitating poultry businessmen in the capital city on Wednesday (Jul 31) reached an agreement to remove the ban. The government had imposed a ban on the supply of the poultry products from Thursday last week following serial outbreak of deadly bird flu virus in the poultry farms of Kathmandu.

With the today's decision, poultry businessmen are now free to sell bird flu infected fowls.

Animal Health Directorate's spokesperson Narayan Ghimire said, "The ban on supply and sales of poultry products imposed last Thursday will be lifted from tomorrow."

He added that a special team of animal health specialists will be deployed at four entry points around the capital city for quarantine checks of the chicken, entering and leaving the capital.

Nagdunga, Farping, Sanga and Nagarjun are the four entry points where a team of animal health specialists will check for the presence of the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.

Of late, Kathmandu has been hit hard by a serial outbreak of bird flu virus accounting for the death and culling of over 100,000 fowls. The capital alone has seen 39th outbreak of bird flu virus as of this afternoon.