Sally Furniss
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="text" width="75%">Saturday, March 25, 2006 Pakistan
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</td></tr></tbody></table> Frontier on the frontline: Bird flu haunts NWFP?s livestock industry
* Health, livestock, wildlife departments working with WHO to combat potential outbreak
By Akhtar Amin
PESHAWAR: The NWFP government is on high alert and has formed task forces consisting of representatives from the health, livestock and wildlife departments and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to combat the pre and post-epidemic effects of bird flu in the province.
On the other hand, the price of meat has skyrocketed in the wake of the bird-flu scare, while the country?s poultry industry in general, and NWFP in particular, is losing millions of rupees every day, NWFP poultry officials told Daily Times. ?The poultry business experienced a 60 percent downfall after test results confirmed the presence of the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus in samples from birds at two farms at Charsadda and Abbottabad on February 27,? NWFP Poultry Association President Niaz Gul said.
Meanwhile, chicken prices have fallen from Rs 60 to Rs 40 per kilogramme in the open market, and all major restaurants and eateries in the city, including Pearl Continental Hotel and Green Hotel have stopped buying chicken from poultry farms. Citizens, however, have rushed to buy beef and mutton from meat shops after brd flu was confirmed.
In a random survey, Daily Times observed that none of the meat vendors surveyed the displayed price lists in their shops, which told customers of the permanent rates of meat. As a result, meat was being sold at vastly different prices at shops throughout the city. In some places, price of meat per kg was Rs 100, while in others it was sold out at Rs 120-140 per kg due to the rush on the meat shops.
Saadullah Jan, an expert on poultry diseases from the Veterinary Research Institute of Peshawar, said that the NWFP government had already released Rs 5,000,000 in funds to tackle the situation and provide medicines and equipment to veterinary diagnostic laboratories and treatments centres in the province in order to prevent an outbreak. He said that the government had also established a veterinary research laboratory to speed up the manufacturing of medicines with help from the UN?s Food and Agriculture Organisation.
?The government is still on high alert,? he said, adding that hundreds of samples, collected from birds from poultry farms in all districts of the province were being tested, but so far, no trace of the H5N1 virus had been found. ?The government has also alerted the wildlife department to observe the migratory patterns of birds from India and the South Asian countries that migrate to Pakistan,? he said, adding that birds from South Asian countries were currently migrating back to Russia through Pakistan, which could also be a potential threat.
Veterinary Disease Investigation Officer Dr Sher Mohammad, said that the government had also constituted taskforces to create awareness of how to save the NWFP poultry industry from bankruptcy.
He said that these taskforces included health officers, DCOs, nazims and councillors, who would remove people?s misconceptions about bird flu.
He said that there was still no threat of bird flu to humans if the chicken that was consumed was well cooked, adding that bird flu had been detected in egg-laying (breeder) chickens, and that broiler chicken was not threatened by the virus as yet.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C03%5C25%5Cstory_25-3-2006_pg7_15
</td> <td align="right" width="25%">
</td></tr></tbody></table> Frontier on the frontline: Bird flu haunts NWFP?s livestock industry
* Health, livestock, wildlife departments working with WHO to combat potential outbreak
By Akhtar Amin
PESHAWAR: The NWFP government is on high alert and has formed task forces consisting of representatives from the health, livestock and wildlife departments and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to combat the pre and post-epidemic effects of bird flu in the province.
On the other hand, the price of meat has skyrocketed in the wake of the bird-flu scare, while the country?s poultry industry in general, and NWFP in particular, is losing millions of rupees every day, NWFP poultry officials told Daily Times. ?The poultry business experienced a 60 percent downfall after test results confirmed the presence of the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus in samples from birds at two farms at Charsadda and Abbottabad on February 27,? NWFP Poultry Association President Niaz Gul said.
Meanwhile, chicken prices have fallen from Rs 60 to Rs 40 per kilogramme in the open market, and all major restaurants and eateries in the city, including Pearl Continental Hotel and Green Hotel have stopped buying chicken from poultry farms. Citizens, however, have rushed to buy beef and mutton from meat shops after brd flu was confirmed.
In a random survey, Daily Times observed that none of the meat vendors surveyed the displayed price lists in their shops, which told customers of the permanent rates of meat. As a result, meat was being sold at vastly different prices at shops throughout the city. In some places, price of meat per kg was Rs 100, while in others it was sold out at Rs 120-140 per kg due to the rush on the meat shops.
Saadullah Jan, an expert on poultry diseases from the Veterinary Research Institute of Peshawar, said that the NWFP government had already released Rs 5,000,000 in funds to tackle the situation and provide medicines and equipment to veterinary diagnostic laboratories and treatments centres in the province in order to prevent an outbreak. He said that the government had also established a veterinary research laboratory to speed up the manufacturing of medicines with help from the UN?s Food and Agriculture Organisation.
?The government is still on high alert,? he said, adding that hundreds of samples, collected from birds from poultry farms in all districts of the province were being tested, but so far, no trace of the H5N1 virus had been found. ?The government has also alerted the wildlife department to observe the migratory patterns of birds from India and the South Asian countries that migrate to Pakistan,? he said, adding that birds from South Asian countries were currently migrating back to Russia through Pakistan, which could also be a potential threat.
Veterinary Disease Investigation Officer Dr Sher Mohammad, said that the government had also constituted taskforces to create awareness of how to save the NWFP poultry industry from bankruptcy.
He said that these taskforces included health officers, DCOs, nazims and councillors, who would remove people?s misconceptions about bird flu.
He said that there was still no threat of bird flu to humans if the chicken that was consumed was well cooked, adding that bird flu had been detected in egg-laying (breeder) chickens, and that broiler chicken was not threatened by the virus as yet.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C03%5C25%5Cstory_25-3-2006_pg7_15
