Implications of the avian influenza outbreak on India
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“Several countries with outbreaks in poultry have weak health infrastructures, with weak capacity for the detection of cases, particularly in rural areas where the majority of domestic birds are raised. Capacity to diagnose a difficult disease such as H5N1 is also weak. Moreover… the full clinical spectrum of H5N1 illness is unknown. Milder cases of illness could be occurring, yet fail to reach the attention of health care staff.”
These comments from the website of the World Health Organisation are of particular concern in India today. On February 18, 2006, the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal, central India, confirmed that the H5N1 virus was found in samples from birds following mass poultry deaths starting in late-January. The virus causes ‘highly pathogenic avian influenza’, more commonly known as bird flu. This is the latest in the series of outbreaks caused by the H5N1 virus all over Asia and more recently in eastern Europe and Africa. These outbreaks have resulted in the death of more than 1.5 million farm birds, through disease or through culling for outbreak control. By the time the government made the announcement, press reports indicate, up to 40,000 chickens had already died on poultry farms in Nawapur taluka, Nandurbar district, a tribal area in Maharashtra 460 km from Mumbai. The state government immediately announced plans to slaughter all poultry in the ‘alert zone’ 3 km around the affected farms and to vaccinate all poultry in farms within the ‘surveillance zone’ of 10 km radius. The poultry industry has contested the laboratory findings and demanded repeat testing though there seems to be no doubt about the diagnosis. Further, the compensation of between Rs 10 and Rs 40 per bird is seen by farmers as extremely inadequate. Government teams in some places have been met by belligerent farmers angry at the prospect of losing their livelihoods overnight. Small poultry farmers have refused to permit what they see as pointless destruction of healthy chickens and without just compensation. There are reports of distress and covert sale of healthy-looking chickens. SOURCE: Infochange India Click here for more... |
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