Bird flu under control in Nepal, say officials

Nepal’s first-ever bird flu outbreak has been fully controlled and that the fatal virus strain has not spread to other parts of the country, officials said.

Nepal’s first-ever bird flu outbreak has been fully controlled and that the fatal virus strain has not spread to other parts of the country, officials said.

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It is highly unlikely that the flu could re-surface in the country, the officials informed on Monday.

“We have contained and controlled the bird flu outbreak,” said Pravakar Pathak, Director of Livestock Services.

“The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC) and Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) had worked in close coordination with the WHO and other international organizations to control the epidemic,” Pathak said.

“The government has sent samples to OIE Reference Laboratories in England after some birds died in the eastern region on Jan 10. Since the spread of bird flu in Jhapa in January, 23,947 chickens, 4,931 eggs, 329 pigeons, 401 ducks, 12 parrots and 345 stocks of feed were destroyed,” Pathak added.

After the outbreak, the government took 109 samples from Pokhara, Kathmandu, Surkhet, Rupandehi, Kailali, Biratnagar and Sindhuli but found no evidence of avian-influenza in them.