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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Nepal : Poultry deaths spur bird flu fear

Via The Himalayan Times :

" Residents of Ghurmi Bazaar, Udayapur, have become fearful that bird flu has hit the area after a mysterious disease claimed more than 1,000 chickens at different poultry farms here in the last few days.

According to Tilak Shrestha, a local, chickens first started dying at the poultry farms belonging to Hira Tamang and Lekh Bahadur Magar in Lekhani VDC-2, Ghurmi, three days ago, which later spread to other poultries in the village. “As the death of fowls in such great numbers had never happened in our village, we fear it is due to bird flu,” he said, adding that villagers have now stopped selling and eating chicken here.

Meanwhile, though the District Livestock Health Office had guessed the disease was Ranikhet, diagnosis is yet to be confirmed.

As the disease could not be diagnosed at the Regional Livestock Health Office in Biratnagar, sample of dead chickens have been sent to Kathmandu to establish the cause behind the death of fowls, said Dev Narayan Singh, chief at DLHO.

There are about 1000 chicken farmers in Udayapur. Following death of chickens in such large numbers, its export to Khotang, Okhaldhunga and Solukhumbu have been banned."

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