KATHMANDU, Jan 2: A rapid response teams of District Animal Health Office (DAHO), Kathmandu on Wednesday culled over 2,600 chicken after the strain of H5N1 virus was detected in a poultry farm at Sitapaila -1, Kathmandu.
Out of 2,800 fowls at the farm which is owned by Prem Manandhar and Surya Mohan Pokhrel, the teams culled 2,640 chickens as others had already died due to the infection. The team also destroyed 527 eggs and 25 kg of chicken feed stored in the farm.
The infected farm lies near 500 meters from the farm of Surya Mohan Pokhrel, where virus was detected a week ago.
According to Directorate of Animal Health (DoAH), the outbreak is third in less than two weeks in Kathmandu and all three infected farm lie within a kilometer of each other.
"With the confirmation of the virus, we immediately deployed rapid response teams and culled the fowls," said Dr Narayan Prasad Ghimire, a senior veterinarian at DoAH. He said that the disease was confirmed by the Central Veterinary Laboratory on Tuesday night. With the confirmation of outbreak, the DoAH has intensified the surveillance in the area.
The meeting of a district co-ordination committee led by Chief District Officer (CDO) Chudamani Sharma had taken the decision to cull the tainted chicken. The meeting was held in morning. Dr Ghimire said an excavator was used to dump the dead chickens and droppings which seemed to have been stored for a long time in the farm. The teams have also disinfected the farm.
The DOAH said that the infection might have spread due to negligence of farmers. "The farmers had visited the infected farm when they heard chickens started to die," Ghimire said adding, "Then they returned to their farm and provided feed and water to chicken without applying any safety measures."
DoAH has declared the place an infected zone and increased surveillance around the area.
On December 26, the virus was detected in Pokhrel´s farm where rapid response teams that comprised of vets and public health experts culled all 2,240 fowls. Earlier on December 22, the disease was confirmed at Subir Singh Basnet´s farm at Ramkot-6, where all 2,500 chickens had died. Veterinary technicians destroyed over 19,000 eggs sent to hatchery from the farm.
DoAH has appealed to all to cook chicken properly before eating.
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