ISLAMABAD, Feb 10: The National Reference Laboratory (NRL) has confirmed the presence of bird flu virus in a domestic flock of turkeys and peacocks in Islamabad as authorities have beefed up monitoring and surveillance activities at the district level across the country to save commercial farms from avian flu.

“This is the third confirmed H5N1 case (since Tuesday) in a domestic flock. Fortunately, commercial farms are still safe,” Dr Mohammad Afzal, head of the NRL, told Dawn here on Saturday.

The virus in Islamabad was confirmed on Tuesday but it was not revealed to the media because it was witnessed in a few domestic birds, Dr Afzal said.

Rawalpindi and Mansehra are the other places where the virus has been found in domestic flocks of chickens and peacocks.

Last year, hundreds of thousands of flu-hit birds were culled in commercial farms in various parts of the country, causing a loss of Rs10 billion to the poultry industry.

The federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock has sent a project proposal to the planning division, seeking Rs1.185 billion in the next Public Sector Development Programme for national level monitoring and surveillance of bird flu.

The project also includes legislations that will remove hurdles in the way of forming a national level integrated strategy to control the avian flu. At present, there is overlapping in roles of various departments at provincial and district levels which has hampered efforts to monitor the situation properly, said Dr Rafiqul Hassan Usmani, Minfal spokesman on bird flu issues.

In a related move, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have asked the government to come up with a national level project to monitor the spread of avian flu not only in animals but also in humans.

The project will be developed by Minfal and the Ministry of Health for which the banks are likely to provide $25 million assistance.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has warned Asian countries that cats can become infected with the highly lethal H5N1 virus, but at present there is no scientific evidence to suggest that there has been sustained transmission of the virus in cats or from cats to humans.As a precautionary measure, the FAO recommended that in areas where the virus had been found in poultry or wild birds, cats should be separated from infected birds until the danger passed. On commercial poultry premises, cats should even be kept indoors.

The organisation has advised against killing cats as a virus control option because there is nothing to suggest that cats are transmitting the virus in a sustained way. Removing cats can lead to a surge in rodents such as rats, which are an agricultural pest and often transmit diseases to humans.