KARACHI, Feb 28: District health officials have not yet tested all those workers who were reportedly involved in the culling of around 2,600 birds some six days back at a Malir poultry farm in the wake of an avian influenza outbreak.

Sources said the health authorities, who were not present at the Mashallah Poultry Farm when the culling was held in the small hours of January 23, were still in search of at least four workers and the farm’s owner, needed to be tested medically for their movement in the AI virus of H5N1 strain-filled environment.

It was said that generally the farms cared little about personnel protection equipment and masks and as such a physical checkup at least once a week could be a step in line with the AI-related protocol and also because a number of cases of the AI virus infecting human being in various countries, including Pakistan, had been reported.

Pakistan Poultry Farmers’ Association leaders said about 4,500 birds, including the 2,600 birds killed in the absence of poultry and health departments’ officials, were lost due to the AI infection at the farm.

Under the requirement of the provincial health department, CDGK health officials could reach only one farm worker, Mohammad Akmal, who was employed only a few days before the latest infection outbreak and who had also taken part in the culling.

Talking to the media on Jan 25, Mr Akmal said he and four other persons arranged by the farm-owners had culled the birds and later buried them in a deep dry well on the farm’s premises.

Referring to the two earlier mass killings of birds at a private and a government farms in the first week of January, a health official said that workers of the private farm were admitted to the Civil Hospital Karachi for one week, while at another farm manned by Rangers all men handling the flock were confined to a Rangers’ post for checkups by health officials of the city district government of Karachi.

When contacted, a poultry official said the farm owner was not available to the officials, otherwise the missing workers could have been traced and checked medically.

The Sindh health department’s Dr Shakeel Mullick said he had repeatedly talked to Maroof Siddiqui of the poultry farmers’ association and others on the subject, but neither the poultry owner nor the abstaining workers had turned up for checkups.

He said the owners of the farms should not take the matter lightly, as there had been cases where persons had tested positive for the H5N1 strain though they did not show symptoms of avian influenza.

Experts also noted that the farmers and their workers might help seek information on the spread of the H5N1 virus in Gadap Town, obtain information about the disposal of the culled or slaughtered birds, and the health of the workers involved, immunisation status of the birds and quality of the bird feeds at the Malir farm before the virus attack.

According to the guidelines, workers at a farm must be between 60 and 16 years of age, the birds be destroyed after receiving orders from the livestock or poultry department, there should be a restriction on moving any thing out of the farm, the killing of birds be by breaking or dislocation of necks, and all dead birds should be in bags and buried deep.

A source said that farmers had failed to present in April 2007 the workers involved in the handling and culling of the AI-infected birds in four Gadap Town farms. Such trend was alarming and could pose a serious danger to public health, he remarked.The director of the Poultry Product of the Sindh Government, Dr Akbar Soomro, said the health and poultry officials of the provincial and the city district governments had got the relevant information and contacts of the poultry farmers and they should act on their own.

Replying to a question, he said it was the issue of the city district government as well and its official concerned should move for proper vigilance and registration of poultry farmers and surveillance of birds and workers’ health.

In the meantime, Dr Ahmed Ali Memon of the CDGK said he had been regularly visiting Mr Akmal, who was doing well and there was no AI symptoms in him. He said a worker of another nearby farm, who shared a room with Akmal and had been under observation, had left the place.