SWABI, June 28: The World Health Organisation and the federal secretary for agriculture want cancelled the transfer of the district livestock officer to make the drive against bird flu in Swabi more result-oriented after detection of H5N1 in a poultry farm in the district’s Tordher village a week ago.

Sources told Dawn on Saturday that the federal secretary, WHO officials and all staff concerned stood against what they called the unjust transfer.

District livestock officer Dr Mohammad Ibrahim was made ‘scapegoat’ for his action against a bird flu-hit poultry farm which was immediately closed and about 2,000 birds were culled by officials of livestock and the WHO with the help of the local administration. Poultry farmers, however, have rejected reports of bird flu detection in the district as wrong.

When contacted, Dr Zia, WHO chief for the National Programme for Control and Prevention of Avian Influenza in the NWFP, told Dawn by phone from Peshawar that the transfer of the livestock officer was disturbing because under his supervision acquiring samplings from the H5N1 detecting region was vital.

“He was threatened with dire consequences when we reached for culling last Sunday. Despite the threat from poultry farm owners he moved forward and completed the culling operation within no time,” said Dr Zia.

“The H5N1 is very dangerous and the transfer of the livestock officer was a conspiracy. This was not the time to target him on the political ground and keeping in mind the track-record of H5N1 it is high time of coordination and cooperation to get rid of the virus.”

He recalled that about 20 million people were killed in Spain in 1918 by the Spanish flu and similarly thousands of people suffered from the deadly disease in Turkey.

The politicians, he said, should note the seriousness of the issue because once it broke out then it might be difficult to control it.

“We still want that Dr Ibrahim should work with us. We were on our way to visit the area on Friday, but due to the peculiar situation in Peshawar we could not move from here,” he said.

The WHO, he said, wanted immediate collecting of samplings and they planned to visit the affected area soon.

In addition, sources in the livestock department said, Dr Ibrahim was called by the federal secretary for agriculture because H5N1 was a national issue and the federal government had taken it very seriously after the detection of bird flu in the region.

When contacted, Dr Mohammad Ikram Munir, project director of the National Programme for Control and Prevention of Avian Influenza, told Dawn from Islamabad that there was a dire need to cancel the transfer of the officer and what had been done by the politicians was not a step in the right direction.

The officials castigated ANP leaders, saying that instead of supporting him he was made a scapegoat, who had declared in the light of laboratory test that the strain of H5N1 that caused bird flu was detected in a poultry farm.

Sources said MPA Sinkandar Irfan had forced NWFP Minister for Livestock and Dairy Development Hidayatullah to transfer the Swabi livestock officer.