Avian flu detected in Pakistan

Originally from: Farmtalking
                        
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Originally from – http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/445711.cms

Bird

AFP (MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2004 08:31:17 PM)

KARACHI : Pakistan Monday said a strain of bird flu was behind the deaths of thousands of chickens in the south of the country, marking South Asia 's first detection of the illness wreaking havoc in Southeast Asia .

"The number of dead birds which could be attributed to avian virus are in the thousands," agriculture and livestock minister Manzoor Panwar told AFP in southern Sindh province.

The government identified the less harmful H7 and H9 strains of avian influenza, a less dangerous variation of the H5N1 strain that has hit Thailand and Vietnam .

The H7 and H9 strains do not transmit to humans, according to the Pakistan Agriculture Research Commission (PARC), the top state-run rural research institute.

"Our initial findings confirmed that it is H7 and H9 virus which has infected birds in Karachi ," senior PARC researcher Mohammad Afzal told AFP, adding that samples had been sent overseas for further confirmation.

"Luckily this kind of virus does not transmit to humans from chickens." There was "a rare chance" it could transform into a more fatal strain in the H5 category "which usually breaks the species barrier," Afzal added.

Since November, some 3.5 million chickens have died on 3,000 farms around Sindh's capital Karachi , the huge port city on Pakistan 's Arabian Sea coast, according to Pakistan 's Poultry Association.

But Panwar said common illnesses were responsible for most of the deaths, with bird flu only responsible for several thousand. "The large number which has been reported by the farmers can be linked to conventional diseases like Newcastle disease," the minister said.

Pakistan is the first country in South Asia to detect the epidemic. Worst-hit are Thailand and Vietnam, where a total of at least seven people have died and 13.9 million fowl have died or been culled.

No humans in Pakistan have been infected by bird flu, Panwar said. "So far the virus has not affected humans as the virus is prevalent in only layers (chickens bred to lay eggs) and not in broilers."

Authorities are holding emergency meetings with poultry breeders to arrange the culling of infected flocks and vaccinations of others.

"We are trying to overcome the epidemic and trying to get vaccinated as many birds as we can," Panwar said. "We are holding a crucial meeting with the owners of farms in order to take remedial measures including destruction of the infected birds or seclusion of the (infected) flocks." Afzal said agricultural experts had warned the government late last year that a severe bird flu outbreak was possible. "It was very much expected. We gave our forecast of a severe outbreak of avian influenza to authorities and farmers early winter," Afzal told AFP. The PARC had advised farmers and authorities to bury dead flu-infected birds at the farms where they died.

The Pakistan Poultry Association disputed the findings of bird flu. "There was widespread death at the poultry farms around Karachi but our researchers are still not able to confirm whether it was due to avian flu or some other unknown virus," the association's convener, Abdul Maroof Siddiqui said.

The Sindh government's top health official said steps were being taken to ensure the virus does not jump species. "There is no report of influenza in human beings so far," Sindh director-general of health, said Qadir Bux Memon. "We would certainly take preventive measures in collaboration with the agriculture department."

Strains of bird flu have also been detected in Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, South Korea, and Taiwan .

Pakistan first experienced bird flu in 1994.