Nepal - bird flu in poultry/animals/wild birds

[Gert van der Hoek]

Bird flu detected in Nepal for first time - minister

KATHMANDU, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Bird flu has been found in birds in Nepal, a minister said on Friday, the first time the virus has surfaced in the Himalayan nation.

"Bird flu has been reported in birds from a village in east Nepal. We have declared that area crisis-hit," Krishna Bahadur Mahara, minister for Communication and Information, told Reuters.

He could not immediately say if the virus was the virulent H5N1 strain, or if it had been found in poultry or wild birds.

AlertNet

http://wap.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP119701.htm

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bird flu detected in Nepal

Cabinet declares Nepal `bird flu affected`


An emergency meeting of the cabinet declared Nepal a bird flu affected country Friday afternoon.

Tourism Minister Hisila Yami told journalists as she emerged out of the meeting halfway that the government has decided to exterminate all birds in the areas three kilometers from the Nepal-India border at Kakarvitta in Jhapa district.

The government has also decided to expedite surveillance in the areas 10 kilometers from the Kakarvitta border, according to our correspondent Kiran Chapagain.

Traces of bird flu had been found in six out of seven samples of birds brought to Nepal from India.

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=1151

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bird flu detected in Nepal

Govt to kill birds in Jhapa

Kantipur Report

KATHMANDU, Jan 16 - Government on Thursday decided to kill birds around 3 km areas from Jhapa district after Bird flu was detected in Kakarvitta.

An emergency meeting of the cabinet took the decision after six out of every seven chicken brought to Mechi-10, Kakarvitta imported from India were diagnosed with avian flu.

The Cabinet also decided to be high alert at the areas around 10 km from Kakarvitta to prevent the bird flu from spreading.

The meeting was held at the Cabinet office in Singha Durbar.

http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?page=kolnews.php&nid=175656

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bird flu detected in Nepal

Nepal reports first H5N1 bird flu outbreak

16 Jan 2009 08:15:56 GMT

Source: Reuters

(Confirms H5N1 strain, adds details)

KATHMANDU, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The deadly H5N1 bird flu has been found in poultry in Nepal, a minister said on Friday, the first time the virus has surfaced in the Himalayan nation.

"The virus has been found in chicken and ducks. We have confirmed it is H5N1 virus," Agriculture Minister Jai Prakash Prasad Gupta told Reuters.
Bird flu was reported in poultry from the southeast Nepal town of Kakarvitta, bordering India, officials said.

"We have declared that area crisis-hit," said Krishna Bahadur Mahara, minister for Communication and Information.

The epicentre of the outbreak is close to India's West Bengal state which has been fighting to contain intermittent outbreaks of the virus in poultry since last year.

India has culled millions of chicken and ducks to contain the virus since its first outbreak in 2006, but has reported no human infections.

Experts have warned the H5N1 virus might mutate or combine with the highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and spark a pandemic that could kill millions of people across the world.

According to the World Health Organization, H5N1 bird flu has infected more than 390 people in 15 countries and killed at least 247 of them since the virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DEL133818.htm

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bird flu detected in Nepal

Location of Kakarvitta or Kakarbhitta is not far from Chandra Ghari, right at the border with West Bengal.

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bird flu detected in Nepal

Nepal records first bird flu case

Kathmandu (PTI): Nepal has detected its first bird flu case of the season in a district bordering India, a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Prachanda said on Friday.

The bird flu virus was detected in samples from an eastern Nepalese Mechinagar municipality bordering India.

The cabinet meeting officially confirmed that bird flu was found in Ward No 10 of the municipality, according to cabinet sources.

The government has directed the concerned authorities to immediately take measures to confine and control bird flu, Minister for Science and Technology Ganesh Shah told PTI.

After bird flu was tested in birds in the eastern Nepal municipality near Kakarbhitta, Nepal government has decided to send "rapid group" to the area to take necessary measures as per international standard, he said.

The rapid group is a team of experts and quarantine officials that would take all necessary steps to prevent spreading of the disease.

The government has directed the authorities to isolate the area from other areas and to quell all the birds found within three kilometre radius of the place so that the virus could not spread to other areas.

Nepal has earlier, banned import of birds and poultry products as the bird flu was found in various districts of India bordering Nepal.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200901161422.htm

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bird flu detected in Nepal

Nepal confirms first outbreak of bird flu


KATHMANDU (AFP) ? Nepal on Friday reported its first outbreak of bird flu in poultry, confirming a case of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus in the eastern part of the Himalayan country.

"Laboratory tests confirmed that chickens in one of the livestock farms died of the bird flu virus," health official Udaya Pratap Singh told AFP from Kakarbhitta, near the Indian border.

Singh said the tests, performed after a local farmer reported that 12 chickens died mysteriously on Thursday, confirmed the H5N1 strain of the virus. He said it was too early to say if there were any human cases.

"The area has been declared an emergency zone and surveillance has been increased," said Singh.

Singh said police have been mobilised along the border to stop poultry imports from India.

"We have started spraying disinfectant on vehicles coming from India and imports of chickens, ducks, birds, eggs and other poultry related items has been banned," he said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gsgkl74DQLimtEv7CP5JSF53ILqA

[HenryN]

Re: Bird flu (H5N1) confirmed in Nepal

Bird flu hits Nepal
Kathmandu, Jan 16 : Unscathed by the past bird flu epidemics that had swept its giant neighbours India and China, Nepal has finally reported the first outbreak of the deadly poultry disease, declaring an eastern town adjoining the Indian border quarantined area.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda Friday called an emergency meeting of his cabinet to discuss the epidemic and other crises.
At the end of the meeting, Information and Communications Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who is also the government spokesman, told the media that the first outbreak of the disease caused by the Avian Influenza Virus has been detected in the border town of Kakarbhitta in eastern Jhapa district.
The government has ordered all poultry in the town as well as other areas within 3 km of it to be culled.
Grim-faced poultry farmers watched by the police Friday began the destruction process.
The cabinet decision came after six of the seven poultry samples from Kakarbhitta tested positive for bird flu.
To keep the disease from spreading, the government has also ordered the district administration not to allow the transportation of poultry within 10 km of the quarantined town.
Even after outbreaks were reported in India, smuggling of poultry and eggs across the open border had continued.
The contamination is likely to have come from India.
India's West Bengal state would be the most affected if a full-scale epidemic breaks out in Jhapa.
Since 1997, the infection has also been reported in humans, especially people who have regular contact with infected birds.
Symptoms of avian influenza in humans range from fever, cough, sore throat, and muscle aches to eye infections, pneumonia, and other severe and life-threatening complications.
According to the World Health Organisation, nearly 250 people have been killed due to bird flu since 2003.
--- IANS

http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-76101.html

[HenryN]

Re: Bird flu (H5N1) confirmed in Nepal

Update map

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=106484775090296685271.00045da2c3c24f4d59de3&t=p&ll=26.719854,88.310852&spn=1.076959,1.672668&z=9

(green markers represent coordinates from latest OIE report from India which are not very precise. The actual location is to the north and east of the green markers and are closer to Siliguri, the epicenter of the outbreak).

[HenryN]

Re: Bird flu (H5N1) confirmed in Nepal

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=533 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=mainnewstitle id=withoutphoto vAlign=center colSpan=3>Eastern Nepal registers its first bird flu outbreak


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NEW DELHI, January 16 (RIA Novosti) - Nepal has introduced measures to deal with its first outbreak of the deadly bird flu virus in the eastern border region of the Himalayan country, the government's press secretary told reporters on Friday.
Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the minister for communication and information, said that a 10-kilometer (8-mile) quarantine zone had been imposed to contain the spread of the virus around the Kakarbhitta village. All birds within a 3-kilometer radius of the village are due to be culled.
"Six out of every seven chickens brought from Kakarbhitta were found to have been infected with the avian flu," Mahara said, adding that the region had been declared an emergency zone.
It is believed the outbreak, affecting domestic chickens and ducks, in the Jhapa administrative district may have spread across the border from the Indian state of West Bengal and Assam, where some 500,000 domestic fowl have been culled since December 2008 following a bird flu outbreak.
According to the World Health Organization, avian influenza has so far killed 243 people out of a total 387 confirmed cases worldwide. Although there have been no incidences of human to human infection, experts fear that it may mutate into a form that could easily be transmitted from person to person, causing a global pandemic.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20090116/119623387.html

[HenryN]

Re: Bird flu (H5N1) confirmed in Nepal

Deadly bird flu strain hits Nepal

Nepal has confirmed its first case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, officials say.
The agriculture ministry said the virus had been found in chickens and ducks in the south-eastern town of Kakarvitta, near the Indian border.
Officials said an emergency zone had been declared and a culling operation was in place. There are no reports of any human infection.
Bird flu has killed nearly 250 people in 15 countries since 2003.
Health officials said tests were performed after 12 chickens died in unknown circumstances on Thursday.
Officials were sent on Friday to cull 13,000 birds to try to control the virus around the town, Reuters reported.
Agriculture Minister Jai Prakash Prasad Gupta told the news agency: "We got the confirmation today and are now seeking international help to fight the outbreak."
Officials believe the virus could have come from India where millions of birds have been culled since the virus was first detected there in 2006.
Mr Gupta said Nepal had been on alert given the outbreaks in India.
H5N1 does not transmit easily to humans but experts fear it could mutate and cause a worldwide pandemic.



Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7833310.stm

Published: 2009/01/16 12:27:11 GMT

[HenryN]

Re: Bird flu (H5N1) confirmed in Nepal

Bihar districts (in India, but adjacent to Nepal)

http://gov.bih.nic.in/profile/Districts.htm

Kishangan is within 3 km cull zone

[HenryN]

Re: Bird flu (H5N1) confirmed in Nepal

H5N1 bird flu virus reaches Nepal

Published: Friday 16 January 2009 12:40 UTC
Last updated: Friday 16 January 2009 12:43 UTC

Nepal has reported its first outbreak of the strain of bird flu virus that is dangerous to humans. The H5N1 virus was found to have infected chickens and ducks in Kakarvitta in the east of the country. The area has been declared an emergency zone and thousands of poultry are to be slaughtered.

Kakarvitta lies on the border with the Indian state of West Bengal, where there is already an outbreak of the flu strain. Nepal has stationed extra police on the border to prevent poultry imports from India.

According to the World Health Organisation, since 2003 the H5N1 bird flu virus has infected people in 15 countries, principally in Asia. At least 247 people have died of the virus.

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/6137501/H5N1-bird-flu-virus-reaches-Nepal

[HenryN]

Re: Bird flu (H5N1) confirmed in Nepal

<TABLE style="DIRECTION: ltr" border=0 width="100&#37;"><TBODY><TR><TD>Nepal Reports First Bird Flu Cases Among Poultry </TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>By Steve Herman
New Delhi
16 January 2009

</TD><TD vAlign=top align=left></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE style="DIRECTION: ltr" class=APIMAGE width=190 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Nepal is confirming bird flu in poultry has been detected for the first time in the Himalayan nation. This follows outbreaks last month in Bangladesh and India.

Several Nepalese government ministries confirm the first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus in birds in the country. But they say they have no reports of the virus affecting humans.

The outbreak, which killed chickens and ducks, is at a farm in the southern town of Kakarvitta, bordering the Indian state of West Bengal.

An Indian consultant to the poultry industry, Amit Sachdev, tells VOA that after recent bird flu outbreaks in West Bengal, Assam and Bangladesh, it was inevitable Nepal would see its own cases.

"It's all porous borders. There is a huge movement of chicken, chicks and people in those areas," he said. "So it does not just come as a surprise. It was bound to happen and it has just happened."

India has culled millions of chickens and ducks since its first outbreaks in 2006.

Following an emergency cabinet meeting Friday in Kathmandu, Nepal's government ordered poultry slaughtered within a three-kilometer radius of Kakarvitta, 480 kilometers east of the capital.

Poultry expert Sachdev says the culling should be merely the first counteraction Nepal takes.

"The second step would be cleaning that whole area because the virus can remain in the feathers or in the dead birds and on the feces," Sachdev explained. "We know that there could be some smuggling around - that farmers who don't want their birds to be killed would take [them] to other areas. But if those birds are infested or infected that would be a major issue."

Nepal banned poultry imports from India last year after outbreaks of H5N1 here. But officials acknowledge chickens are still routinely smuggled across the border.

Avian influenza is a major concern to health experts. They worry the H5N1 strain could mutate or combine with the seasonal human influenza virus, triggering a global pandemic killing millions of people. The virus, according to the World Health Organization, has killed about 250 people since resurfacing six years ago in Asia.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-01-16-voa15.cfm

[HenryN]

Re: Bird flu (H5N1) confirmed in Nepal

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01160901/H5N1_Nepal.html