HYDERABAD, March 28: After an intensive survey and analysis conducted by a task force, the district government has declared Hyderabad as a bird flu-free district. A meeting of the district task force was held at the DCO’s camp house here on Tuesday. District Nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil had formed the task force to monitor the situation regarding bird flu in the district and adopt precautionary measures.

The meeting observed that chicken meat was safe for human consumption in the district.

DCO Mohammad Sharif Awan, who presided over the meeting, said members of the task force, along with doctors and technical experts, had visited and taken samples from all 410 poultry farms in the district and sent the same to the Poultry Research Institute, Karachi, and the National Reference Laboratory for Poultry Diseases, Islamabad, for bird flu analysis but no sign of the virus had been found in more than 380 reports received so far.

Besides, this exercise was also conducted by departments concerned of the Sindh government in which no case of bird flu had been detected. He said that Hyderabad fell in the hot zone where the bird flu virus could not survive.

He said broiler chicken had not been infected from the virus throughout the world and, as such, chicken meat was safe for human consumption in Hyderabad.

He said that since there was no bird flu virus prevailing in the district, restoration of the confidence of people had became essential to save the poultry industry and its dependents from losses.

He asked the management concerned to arrange walks and seminars for awareness of people and training programmes for employees of poultry farms to follow the WHO guidelines and adopt precautionary measures while dealing with poultry.

The DCO directed members of the task force to evolve a strategy to meet the threat of bird flu on permanent basis. He said the district government in the interest of people and the business community would extend full cooperation and help in providing training to employees of poultry farms.

He asked officers to collect data and evaluate the present status of the poultry business in the district so that the strategy could be implemented.

He also directed the task force members to weekly visit poultry farms to ensure maintenance of the WHO standards.

District poultry development officer Mohammad Asghar Arain told the meeting that the task force had provided literature to poultry farms to educate employees about precautionary measures.

Referring to some mortalities of chickens at different farms, he said the deaths were due to routine diseases like ND, Ghambhoro, CRD and low resistance power.

The EDO, agriculture, Shahabuddin Siddiqui, EDO, health, Dr Nazar Mohammad Junejo, EDO, revenue, Abdul Sattar Jatoo, a representative of the Poultry Farms Association, Farooq Qureshi, and other officers attended the meeting.