KARACHI, Sept 1: Delayed action on the part of the Sindh wildlife department and absence of infection control measures are pointed out as major factors that contributed to the spread of the Newcastle disease in Mithi, Tharparkar district, in a report recently prepared by a non-governmental organisation.

The third party assessment report has been prepared on the government’s request by the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P), which conducted a three-day survey (from Aug 6 to 8) of 50 villages in Chachra, Islamkot, Diplo and Mithi talukas.

The team comprising Saeed ul Islam and Umair Shahid, both working as natural resource management officers with the organisation, worked in coordination with the wildlife department.

It recorded death of 68 birds and found another 19 infected with the Newcastle disease virus while about 257 birds were recorded as ‘roadside count’.

The team found it difficult to verify the claims of both the wildlife department (30 to 40 birds) and the media (over 200) on mortality. The report states that the death toll could be much higher or even lower than what was reported by the wildlife department and the media while reasoning that there were no dead specimen to substantiate the claims of the media and that, according to the report, could be because of the delay in finding, reporting and finally carrying out an exercise to look for the physical evidence.

“There is no doubt that a Newcastle outbreak of low intensity in the peafowl populations in Tharparkar district has spread.

Nevertheless, the high mortality of peafowl as reported in the media has not been observed in the area,” the report says.

According to the report, there was a delay on the part of the department in responding to the reported mortalities of peafowl in the area. “The wildlife department is doing very little considering that the outbreak is there. No official vehicle is available for the teams being deputed by poultry production and research department to travel to villages and vaccinate the birds,” it says.The department, it says, took mitigation measures only after more than 100 mortalities were reported in more than 15 villages in the media. It lacked the supply of antibiotic and multivitamins whereas vaccines and some medicines were made available through external funding such as with the support of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and WWF-P, the report highlights.

The report gives a list of measures that could have helped contain the disease outbreak that included adoption of infection control techniques by the staff concerned, immediate removal of infected birds from villages and bringing them into a quarantine, raising awareness through the media and sensitising the communities through active mobilisation for handling infected birds and disposal of dead birds.

“These are a few things that should have been taken care of immediately which, however, were not done even throughout the process of vaccination and surveying of villages (by government staff),” the report says.

The survey confirmed that the outbreak of the virus occurred in the south and southeast of Mithi city and a greater number of mortalities was reported and observed while the survey was in progress. The report says that though south and southeast of the Mithi city were the areas infected by the virus, the mortalities recorded and reported in the north and northeast of the city were mainly due to malnutrition and weakness in birds due to stress in environment.

“It is assumed that the virus for the disease already existed within the body of all peacocks, though in a recessive form. It caused disease when birds suffering from malnutrition came under stress. Peahens are affected in greater numbers than peacocks,” says the report.

It rejects media reports that the first case of virus outbreak occurred in Bapuhar village when poultry got infected with the disease. Bapuhar village is a settlement dominated by the Hindu population that does not keep poultry for domestic use as the people are mostly vegetarian.

“The disease spread from a nearby village which is hardly two kilometres away from Bapuhar and called Bhattian Ji Veri. This village had the first reported death of a peacock and simultaneously all the poultry birds died in the village. This is a Muslim settlement that has poultry for domestic use,” it says.

Although the community has a low level of awareness regarding the disease, the people have a high sense of responsibility towards wildlife. “While the community may not be aware of how to tackle the outbreak and the media, they understand and love the animals in their area to a great extent. Peafowl is considered to be a bird protected by the Thakur community as well as other Hindu tribes,” it says.

The team recorded a total of 257 peafowl (healthy birds) during the assessment. A flock of Brahminy myenas, chinkaras (a gazelle species) about 400 in number and white-backed vultures (20) were also spotted. It also observed desert hare, desert and pied wheatears, uromastyx and blue rock agama (both lizard species) in good numbers.

The report suggests a number of measures to prevent a similar disease outbreak in future that included the establishment of a consortium consisting of all relevant public and private sector organisations, a government-based emergency response procedure (ERP), launching awareness and veterinary campaigns in the area and carrying out surveys of peafowl in Thar and adjoining areas.