KARACHI, Feb 1: The poultry and health officials of the provincial and city governments are set to intensify the surveillance of birds and workers at farms across the city in an attempt to stop the spread of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus following its detection at a Gadap poultry farm.
A source close to the bird flu monitoring teams of the government said that the detection of the disease, which is also considered dangerous to humans, had alarmed the authorities.
They wanted foolproof surveillance of bird flu in both birds and humans and arrangements were being made in such a way that the support of the area police could also be sought if the farmers tried to close their premises to the surveillance staff, the source added.
In the meantime, three young men who had been working at a poultry farm (Uni poultry farm) where birds died during the last few days or were culled on Friday in the wake of their contact with the virus were shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi on Friday evening.
The focal person on bird flu, a deputy secretary in the Sindh health department, Dr Shakeel Mullick, told Dawn that the persons, named Mohammad Aslam, Ghulam Mustafa and Allah Dino, had been admitted to the isolation ward of the CHK for observation purposes.
“As per initial examinations, none of the three had shown any symptoms of bird flu infection, but they would be watched for four to five days to avert any danger to them,” he said.
Dr Khalil Ansari, the Gadap Town Health Officer, said that poultry workers at a farm maintained by the Rangers near the Uni farm were physically examined by doctors on Friday as a precautionary measure.
“Following reports that birds at the Uni and Rangers’ farms had been suspected of being exposed to some deadly virus, we have started monitoring the poultry workers in the Gadap area as well, and at least 50 people were examined at various farms on Thursday,” he informed.
The Director Poultry of the Sindh Government, Dr Ali Akbar Soomro, said that since it had been confirmed that a deadly virus existed in the environment, the relevant staff of the city district government had been advised to carry out massive anti-virus procedures, including serological tests and the spray of medicines so that the further spread of viral Newcastle and bird flu diseases could be checked.
Regarding the samples drawn from the Rangers’ farm, Dr Soomro said that they had been sent to the National Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza, which normally took 72 hours for the confirmation of bird flu in the samples taken from birds.
Till Friday morning, about 1,100 birds had succumbed to some unknown diseases at the farm in question.
‘Immunity decreases in winter’
A private veterinary doctor working in the Gadap area said on Friday that immunity against diseases normally decreased in birds in the winter and that was why he had advised the caretakers of the Rangers’ farm to administer some supplementary medicines to enhance the immunity status of the birds in question. “If things do not improve in the next 24 hours, then some antibiotic preparations would have to be administered to the remaining flock,” he remarked.
The CDGK’s DO Poultry, Dr Asadullah Shah Bukhari, said that visits to other farms along the National Highway, Super Highway, Hub River Road, Gadap and Surjani towns and other parts of the city would be intensified from Saturday.
“To ensure a massive spray of medicines against bird diseases at farms, we are also approaching the high-ups to provide the necessary resources and machines to the staff concerned,” he added.
As for the Uni farm issue, he said that the owners had strictly been told not to carry out any new activity or poultry production for the time being at the site. “We carried out a spray on Friday and will visit again in the coming weeks to ensure a complete disinfection of the place,” he added.The owner of Uni poultry farm told Dawn in the evening that his premises had been sealed by the government officials after completing the culling operation. He said he had to suffer a loss of about 12,000 birds that existed in two flocks due to the bird flu virus.
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