Bird flu: Border states put on alert

Laboratories handling avian influenza and human influenza viruses are on alert and in a state of preparedness, officials said. At the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory HSADL, Bhopal, that receives over 5,000 poultry samples for testing every week, Joint Director H K Pradhan said so far all reports are negative for bird flu. 8220;The vaccine prepared by the laboratory has been stored for emergency purposes, with one lakh doses being kept aside,8221; he said.

A total of 62 countries were affected by the H5N1 strain of the virus last year. While outbreaks were reported from United Kingdom and Pakistan, among nine other countries, in February this year, the latest outbreak from Myanmar saw the government give a wake up call to the border states. Detection of the avian influenza virus had prompted the slaughter of millions of birds across Asia and caused the deaths of at least 168 persons worldwide.

While the Animal Husbandry Department has been training officials and equipping them with information on how to tackle the disease and protecting waterbodies, the National Institute of Virology too has stepped up its surveillance of migratory birds. NIV Director A C Mishra said fecal samples of migratory birds were being tested and there was no evidence of any strain of bird flu till date.