February 04, 2008	Monday	Muharram 25, 1429

KARACHI, Feb 3: The Sindh Rangers have killed hundreds of birds suspected of having contracted the deadly bird flu virus at a local farm in the small hours of Sunday, without taking the local livestock or health officials into confidence, said sources. A laboratory report of the samples taken from the birds in question is also pending.

Officials in the provincial and city district governments said that the latest action against the suspected birds should have been taken in their presence as they had certain protocols and standards to meet before and after the killing or culling of the birds infected with avian influenza (AI).

When contacted, a spokesman for the Rangers confirmed on Sunday night that about 4,000 infected birds were killed and buried properly by the force alone on Sunday at their poultry farm located along the Super Highway.

It was on Jan 31 that the surveillance teams on bird flu had collected samples from the Rangers’ poultry farm in Gadap Town, where a private poultry farm had already been declared affected by bird flu after an operation on Friday.

Later, the samples were sent to the National Reference Laboratory (poultry diseases), Islamabad, for detection of the bird flu virus.

According to a source, the executive district officer (agriculture), who normally acts as the operational in-charge on behalf of the DCO Karachi against bird flu, was caught by surprise when he found the Rangers’ farm deserted and closed. He was told that hundreds of leftover birds had been killed by the paramilitary force and buried at a place near the farm close to a camp maintained by the Rangers, the source added, saying that once the birds were suspected, it was the government officials’ job to destroy the birds and ensure their scientific disposal.

As per international standards, the culling of affected birds, their burial and then quarantining of the farm in question and its nearby area to prevent birds’ production and the movement of humans for some time are considered the first line of defence against the spread of bird flu.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s advice to poultry farmers, avian flu can flourish and spread in live bird markets and the sick birds or those which had died as a result of avian flu can be very dangerous for humans.

It was learnt that the health and poultry officials had now decided to visit the Rangers’ farm for some formalities on Monday morning, if the reports pertaining to samples of their birds were found positive for bird flu.

‘Birds are probably infected’

The spokesman for the federal health ministry, Orya Maqbool Jan Abbasi, told Dawn from Islamabad that though a technical report or lab test results were likely to be sent to Karachi some time on Monday, it was assumed that the Rangers’ birds, too, had been affected by bird flu.

“The birds were being raised in the vicinity of Uni farm, which had been declared bird flu infected, and they also showed symptoms similar to AI-affected birds. So it can be said that the results would (probably) be positive for bird flu,” Mr Abbasi added.

The Rangers’ spokesman said that personnel maintaining the farm were worried about the spread of bird flu. They kept in view the health risks involved in delaying the culling, he added, saying that hundreds of birds kept dying on their own due to the unknown disease at the farm for the last few days.

In the meantime, a local health official said that the personnel who were maintaining and handling the flock at the Rangers’ farm were already under observation for the last few days and so far had not shown any negative symptoms.

Guidelines

In the meantime, experts have expressed the view that the birds either culled or killed at the Uni poultry farm, Gadap, or other farms in the wake of bird flu were not being disposed of properly.

The World Health Organization guidelines say that the culled birds should be dumped in an eight-foot-deep pit with a volume of 12 cubic feet and that the surface of the pit should at least 64sq ft.

It is further required that birds should be dumped at least eight feet under the ground, layered with bleaching powder and lime afterwards, said an expert.