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AVIAN INFLUENZA
High Alert
The detection of bird flu in the neighboring countries put Nepal under high risk of contracting the dreaded disease
By SANJAYA DHAKAL
Sanu Maharjan is a befuddled man. A poultry farmer from Bhaktapur, he is nervously watching the daily news reports about the bird flu disease. Even though Nepal has not yet reported detection of the disease, poultry farmers like Maharjan are already feeling the pinch. The rumors of the disease and scary news reports have led to sharp decline in the demand of chicken meat and eggs.
With the authorities hitting the panic button, farmers and traders find themselves in the cold. A news report from Nuwakot said how the local people there had boycotted the poultry products early this week after 1000 chicken belonging to one farmer died. Tests were later conducted only to reveal that they died of Ranikhet – a common poultry disease.
Nepal ’s poultry industry – with the total investment of Rs 18 billion – has been growing handsomely making the country almost self-sufficient on poultry products. The scare of bird flu could undo the progress made in this sector, according to Guna Chandra Bista, president of Hatchery Industry Association. Bista said that rumors and scare could damage the sector that employs 400,000 people.
The panic was triggered by the news of detection of H5N1 strain of virus in the poultry samples from Navapur in Maharashtra state of western India. Since Nepal has an open border with India and since Nepalese poultry farmers depend on the import of poultry products like chicken feed, egg-tray, mother-chicken and so on from India, the panic was not altogether false.
Days after the detection of bird flu in India, the Department of Livestock Services banned all kinds of poultry imports into Nepal including live fowl, frozen meat, unprocessed meat, egg and other related items. The department also put all the 24 quarantine posts across the country on high alert. “We are on high risk due to open border with India,” said Dr. Dhanaraj Ratala, program director at the Department.
The authorities have appealed to the people to immediately notify them if they see sudden death/sickness of large number of birds. People have also been asked to avoid contact with such birds. The deadly disease, which is sweeping across Asian, African and European countries, has been reported both in China and India – two countries with which Nepal shares its borders. “Although efforts to prevent the disease from entering continues, special alertness is essential since the disease can erupt from anywhere, anytime,” said Dr. Dhan Raj Ratala.
Facing the first crisis in his ministry since he was appointed the Agriculture Minister, Keshar Bahadur Bista has been stressing that the government will do everything it can to prevent bird flu from entering Nepal. “First thing, we have not detected bird flu yet. So there is no need for people to panic. Second thing, we are exercising special alertness to prevent it,” he said.
Last week, senior World Health Organization (WHO) official in Nepal, too, said that the country is at high risk of bird flu given its location between China and India – both of which have detected incidents of dreaded H5N1 avian influenza. “There is particular risk from India because of open border,” said Dr. Margarita Ronderos, an official at WHO. She said that the Nepal government must make quarantine posts alert and strict as well as ‘enhance surveillance among birds as well as humans’ for the symptoms of the flu.
Despite the call for caution and calm, people have already started to keep out chicken from their menu – an unnecessary step at this moment, according to experts. Properly cooked meat are safe to eat, doctors say.
What is Bird Flu?
The disease that has stolen the sleep of thousands of experts and public health officials across the globe actually was first detected in Hong Kong in 1997. Since then 88 people have succumbed to the H5N1 virus. Around 150 million chicken have been culled due to detection of the disease. In western India last week, over 10,000 chicken were culled and 90,000 people tested for the disease – they exhibited no sign of the disease.
The bird flu virus are thought to have been first spread by migratory birds. As its name suggests, bird flu doesn’t usually infect human. When the strain of H5N1 enters human body – through contact with the infected birds - it could fuse with strain of human flu virus resulting in the creation of new subtype of virus. This new virus has the potential to mutate inside a human body and becoming a deadly strain that can be transmitted between humans through air. Till now, human to human transmission has not yet been confirmed. Once the virus mutates and becomes transmissible among humans, health officials fear, the disease would become just uncontrollable possibly leading to millions of deaths. This is the reason why authorities around the world are taking this disease very, very seriously.
The last one month has been particularly worrisome. According to World Health Organization (WHO), in the last one month, 13 nations have reported bird flu cases including India. European countries, too, have reported bird flu and so have African countries like Nigeria and Niger.
Health officials fear that the outbreak of bird flu in Asian and African countries can have dangerous consequences since in these countries people normally live close by their poultry farm and mingle extensively whereas in European countries, people usually have commercial poultry centers that are well managed and secluded from human settlements.
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