February 04, 2008	Monday	Muharram 25, 1429

KARACHI, Feb 3: The incidence of poultry disease and mortality in the country has been showing an upward trend for the past many years and the situation hasn’t improved despite huge costs being incurred on account of vaccines and medication.

The government’s strategy to contain the spread of bird flu through mass vaccination has not brought any positive result so far. The real problem lies in neglect of hygiene and sanitation at the farm level in addition to poor quality feed and the indiscriminate use of vaccines and medicines, which might be a cause of various infections and transmission for new strains of viruses in the country.

Poultry experts highlighted these facts while talking to Dawn on Sunday. They urged the government to invest in a crash programme on bio-security for poultry farmers and set up a committee to award 100 per cent compensation to all the genuine farmers affected by bird flu. They said that a multi-pronged strategy was vital to contain bird flu.“We have no way out except to introduce bio-security measures at each and every farm and adopt the well-tested methods that have been proved successful in other countries in combating the outbreak of bird flu,” said Dr S.M. Jaffery, former president of the Pakistan Veterinary Medical Council and consultant at Baqai Medical University.

He elaborated that bio-security measures included all steps that could help prevent chances of infection. There were rules and regulations pertaining to the location, size, capacity, infrastructure and operation of a poultry farm. Similarly, poultry workers were required to wear protective gear.

He said that farmers desperately needed education and training, particularly on the selection of chicks. “Generally, farmers consider rejecting a diseased chick a financial loss. They don’t know that if they reject the diseased flock, the rest would not only make up for the financial loss but also prove much more productive in the long run,” he said.

However, the expert said, a comprehensive programme of bio-security measures and training could only be kicked off once all poultry farms located in every nook and corner of the country were registered.

“This won’t be an easy job. There are various interest groups involved in this matter and poultry farmers, fearing enhanced tax cuts, would be reluctant to give correct information about their farms, the number of birds and operational details. But, this information is vital if we are really serious to do something on concrete grounds to contain bird flu,” a veterinary doctor said, requesting anonymity.

Once all the information was collected, it would be easier for the government to identify ‘hot-spots’ and initiate their continued monitoring, he said.

Under the bird flu control strategy that had proved successful in some countries, the entire bird population within the 2km area of the infected farm was culled while the surrounding area up to five kilometres was divided into zones to restrict the movement of birds for a specific period to vaccinate them.

“The stress is on prevention. And, as soon as a farm is identified for the presence of bird flu virus, the entire flock is culled and safely disposed of,” he said.

The use of influenza vaccine abroad was very restricted because it carried risk and one had to maintain high standards in its preparation and administration. Besides, the use of any influenza vaccine indicated that your country was afflicted with the virus. In an attempt to protect their exports, many countries preferred to cull the entire infected flock, he said.

However, the government adopted only a part of the strategy on eradication of bird flu and that too was deeply flawed. There was no quality control on vaccine production and markets were today flooded with substandard, unregistered vaccines, he added.

“The government is completely out of the picture. It is neither involved in vaccine production nor playing any part in regulating private parties. Vaccines are being imported without proper screening, which might be a source of transmitting new strains of viruses in the country,” he observed.

Dr Alamdar Hussain, secretary-registrar of the Pakistan Veterinary Medical Council, questioned the government’s rationale of having only one laboratory capable of carrying out diagnosis of animal diseases. He stressed that the government must upgrade veterinary research labs in other provinces to avoid delays in diagnosis.

He said the outbreak of bird flu almost every year was enough to judge what measures had been taken so far to contain the disease. Without giving any specific reference, he said, people involved in testing samples must have credibility beyond all doubts.