KATHMANDU, Nepal- With the reports of bird flu detection coming from various locations in and around Kathmandu Valley, the government is mulling over the extension on sale of poultry products for more weeks. The ban that the government has imposed on the sale of entire poultry products for a week since last Thursday following the rapid spread of bird flu ends today.
“The government is considering extending the ban on sale of poultry products in the capital as the strain of H5N1 virus continues to be detected in the local poultry farms around Kathmandu valley,” said an official at the Directorate of Animal Health (DOAH) hinting on further ban.
Officials at DoAH, however, said that any decision regarding the ban would be taken by a meeting of stakeholders scheduled for Wednesday.
“Though a decision would be taken on Wednesday, the possibility of removing the ban is slim at a time when the virus continues to infect farms,” Dr Narayan Prasad Ghimire, spokesperson of the DoAH, said.
The disease has been detected in scores of poultry farms of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur even after the directorate imposed the ban. The DoAH said that the virus has been detected in three poultry farms of Kathmandu and Bhaktapur on Tuesday as well.
Rapid response team of the District Veterinary Office of Kathmandu Lalitpur, Bhaktapur and other districts including Kavre, Chitwan, Nawalparasi are killing thousands of chickens everyday.
Meanwhile, the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) under the Department of Health Services (DoHS) said that no case of human infection has been reported yet. The laboratory conducted tests on samples collected from five people of Bhaktapur. “None of them were found to be infected as all the samples tested negative,” confirmed the NPHL.
