PESHAWAR, June 26: The provincial government has transferred an official of the livestock department from Swabi to Mardan as punishment for allegedly disclosing that H5N1 strain of bird flu influenza had been detected in a poultry farm of the district, sources told Dawn.

They claimed that on the advice of a local MPA, who favoured the poultry farm owners, Basic Livestock Officer Mohammad Ibrahim was made a scapegoat for revealing the information and “transferred within a day as the process usually takes a month”.

Earlier, the livestock department had conducted a test of poultry samples at the National Research Institute Islamabad that reportedly detected H5N1 virus in the poultry samples taken from a poultry farm in Tordher, Swabi.

In contrast to this report, the Poultry Association Swabi claimed that they had conducted a similar test of the poultry sample at the Poultry Research Institute Rawalpindi, which identified the virus as H5N9, which was not dangerous for human beings.

Meanwhile, a team of the World Health Organisation (WHO) discussed the bird flue issue with the local authorities in Swabi. They discussed the signs and symptoms of the avian influenza with the healthcare providers at the two basic health units and one rural health centre in the area. The local health workers were instructed to conduct daily fever monitoring of all poultry workers along with their families.

As there is no isolation ward at the District Headquarters Hospital Swabi, the WHO has recommended that suspected cases of avian influenza in the area be shifted to the Khyber Teaching Hospital in Peshawar.

The WHO has recommended early disease warning system in the district to prevent outbreaks of the disease. Specific veterinary staff for bird flu investigation and surveillance in the district be sensitized, it added. Currently there is no proper surveillance system.

Sources said that upon the recommendation of the WHO, about 1,700 birds at the poultry farm were culled whereas 4,300 had already died. The birds had been supplied to the farm by a Lahore-based company.