PESHAWAR, March 2: As efforts to allay fears about of bird flu in the NWFP continue, the government and the Sarhad Poultry Farms Association on Thursday took steps to protect human health and save the poultry industry from collapse.

An official of the World Health Organization handed over a kit, comprising anti-bird flu vaccines, to the director-general of health services.

The vaccine, Tamiflu, is considered effective against avian flu, the WHO official told Dawn, but also confirmed that globally pharmaceutical companies had failed to manufacture effective vaccine against H5N1 virus.

Health sources confirmed that poultry farm workers in Charsadda and Abbottabad were healthy but, as a precautionary measure, had been shifted from a Charsadda hospital to a local rest house.

“We can not provide details about their health and the final report about it could be announced after collecting detailed reports from the laboratory”, sources said.

Some health analysts criticised the government’s casual approach to bird flu, saying when the virus was reported from some parts of Asia, it would have been better to chalk out an advanced precautionary plan to avoid virus transmission to local birds, including those in poultry farms.

Meanwhile, poultry supply to Afghanistan remained suspended for the second consecutive day and the poultry farms association appealed to masses not to believe in rumours.

The association’s president, Fazal Malik, told a press conference that the misinformation had put livelihood of thousands of poultry workers at stake.

He appealed to the poultry workers to be careful and the media and health department to educate masses about the factual situation.

He said that suspension of poultry export to Afghanistan could serve a blow to the local industry if the export was not resumed in a few days.

Speaking on the occasion, veterinary doctor Saeed Ahmad Khan talked about different kinds of bird flu viruses, saying that H5 virus had been reported in dead chickens of Charsadda and Abbottabad.

He said that H5 was not harmful for human health and claimed that only H5N1 could harm human health.

Answering a question, he said that local chickens, as compared to poultry chickens, had a stronger immune system, therefore, the virus could not easily affect their body system.

He advised masses to continue consumption of poultry products.