February 22, 2006	Wednesday	Muharram 23, 1427

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LAHORE, Feb 21: The federal government plans to create a fund for those poultry houses where cases of bird flu may be detected. The government has convened a meeting on Wednesday (tomorrow) for discussing the modalities of the fund.

According to sources in Minfal (Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock), the government has prepared a formal proposal and is set to allocate huge funds. This pre-emptive effort is aimed at encouraging poultry owners to report any case of bird flu with a knowledge that the government would compensate their loss.

“The biggest fear is that poultry owners may hide case of bird flu for fear of fiscal loss,” says an official of the ministry.

The fund would take care of that fear, he was optimistic. The amount would soon be transferred to provinces which would actually monitor the stocks.

The meeting would discuss strategy in case of reports of flu from any part of the country. It would also discuss all the steps taken in the world to face the threat. The government has banned import of birds from all countries where cases of bird flu have been reported.

Sindh runs high risk of catching bird flu because of a few lakes in its interiors that attract birds from abroad. That is why inter-provincial movement of poultry has also been banned so that any threat, if existed and reported, could be quarantined in any one area.

Meanwhile, Punjab, which contributes 75 per cent to the national poultry industry, collected over 700,000 samples from the province and tested them for possible bird flu attack.

According to Provincial Secretary Livestock Fateh Yaqoob Babar, not even a single case has been detected so far. The process is very authentic and it could be claimed that there is so far no case of bird flu in the province.

The provincial government has also formed committees at the district level for monitoring and coordination under district governments. District Coordination Officers (DCOs) have been put in charge of the committees, which will be duly supported by the livestock experts and doctors.

“Punjab so far is safe,” he said and added: “But it certainly does not mean that it could not be affected in future. In order to pre-empt such eventuality, the provincial government has called a meeting of all stakeholders on Tuesday (today) for devising a joint strategy against the possibility of attack. It has a long border with India, where cases have been reported. But luckily there is hardly any bird migration between both countries.”