KARACHI, Feb 22: No case of bird flu has been reported until now in Sindh or any other province, however, health officials at the district level are fully alert to the presence of bird flu virus in the neighbouring countries of India and Iran, said the Sindh Health Minister, Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani, on Wednesday.

Addressing a press briefing at his office, he said the federal government had already set up a coordination cell regarding bird flu, besides banning inter-provincial movement of poultry.

He said, as a precautionary measure, the Sindh Health Department had alerted the EDOs off all districts.

He said sufficient quantity of bird flu vaccines was available and the health department was collecting samples from all poultry farms throughout the province for laboratory tests. He also stressed the medical check-up of all workers of poultry farms as a precautionary measure.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Health Department is reviewing the situation in the wake of bird flu cases in neighbouring countries. In this regard, the Sindh Health Secretary, Prof Naushad Ahmed Shaikh, on Tuesday evening summoned an emergency meeting at the provincial health department to review preventive steps against the disease.

The meeting in which high officials of the health, livestock, agriculture and poultry departments participated reviewed in detail various aspects of bird flu.

It said that Pakistan was situated on Route-4 of migratory birds. On this route, migratory birds come from Central Asia via Afghanistan. While India, on the other hand, was situated on the West-East route, where migratory birds came from Europe via Iran.

The experts told the meeting that bird flu virus had not yet been detected in birds migrating on Route-4.

They said that majority of the bird flu cases were found in countries where pig farming was practised, and where meat or blood of pigs was used in poultry feed.

They said that due to the absence of pig farming in Pakistan or use of their components in poultry feed there were minimum chances of the spread of bird flu here.

The experts said that only layer or egg-laying hens were found to be affected by the disease, and broiler birds were safe. They said the virus could not transfer to eggs.

They said the disease could transfer from birds to humans, but no case of its transfer from humans to humans had been observed yet.

The meeting was told that mostly people above the age of 60 or below 16 with low immune power could get infected with bird flu. Hence, people belonging to both these age groups should remain away from all poultry-related businesses.

The experts said bird flu virus could not survive in freezing or extreme hot conditions.

They said symptoms of bird flu resembled those of the common cold and flu, like fever, cough, sore throat, body pain, heavy breathing and eye infection.

They suggested that as precautionary measures, people should avoid going near poultry farms or migratory birds. They said that workers of poultry farms should use masks and hand gloves. They should use separate work clothes and take a thorough bath after finishing their work.

The experts said that in case of detection of the virus in poultry birds, all such birds should be culled and buried in deep ditches along with live lime.

They said whole affected poultry farms should be sprayed with germicides, and entry of people should be barred in a three-kilometre area around them.

The meeting was told that anti-bird flu vaccine was developed in Pakistan and would be supplied to poultry farms for vaccination of birds.

Additional Health Secretary Dr Capt Abdul Majid was made focal person regarding all matters related to bird flu in the province. His telephone and cellphone numbers, respectively, are 021-9211563 and 0333-2118534.

The meeting requested the general public, especially doctors and people belonging to the poultry business, to immediately report any incident related in this regard to Dr Majid on the above phone numbers.

The meeting was also told that committees headed by DCOs were formed in all districts of the province to cope with any bird flu threat.—PPI