January 30, 2004

Pakistan Bans Poultry Movement Within Country

Pakistani authorities have stepped up their fight against bird flu by banning the transportation of chicken and other domestic birds within the country.

The disease is reported to be subsiding in Pakistan, but has led farms to cull millions of chickens in southern Sindh province to halt its spread. Pakistani authorities only revealed Monday that the disease - which has killed at least 10 people across Asia and led to the slaughter of tens of millions of birds - had been identified in Pakistan last year.

Health and poultry officials say the strains of the virus found here are different from the strain causing worries in other countries, and aren't harmful to humans. There have been no confirmed cases of the illness spreading to humans in Pakistan.

The ban on movement of birds was imposed Wednesday. "The ban was imposed on our recommendation," said Tariq Javed, a microbiologist and member of a Health Ministry committee leading efforts against bird flu.

He said the ban will remain in place for at least 40 days, adding no new case of the disease had been reported in the country since Jan. 15.

"This is a safety measure," Javed said of the restriction.

A poultry official rejected the ban on transportation of chicken as "needless."

"When there is no disease in Pakistan, what is the use of a restriction?" Mohammed Sadiq of the Pakistan Poultry Association asked at a Thursday news conference in the capital Islamabad.

According to officials and poultry industry representatives, between 1.5 million and 3.5 million chickens were killed by bird flu and culling in farms around the southern city of Karachi.