KARACHI, Jan 30: Following the large-scale deaths of birds at a local farm, poultry and health officials have suspected that avian influenza (bird flu) has crept into Karachi.

A senior poultry officer of the Sindh government said that he had been informed about an extraordinary number of mortalities of birds in a farm located on the right side of the Super Highway near the Toll Plaza, lending credence to reports that the much-dreaded bird flu had hit Karachi.

Dr Aslam Jalali, the provincial surveillance officer on avian influenza, said on Wednesday night that a surveillance team which, according to him, had already been working in the area, had collected samples from 10 birds of a poultry farm on Tuesday for confirmation of H5N1 bird flu virus and a laboratory report pertaining to the samples was due to be released from Islamabad on Thursday evening.

Though he maintained that the spread of the disease was confined to only one farm, the relevant quarters claimed that the flu and mortality problem existed in some nearby farms as well, including those maintained by the Rangers.

It was further learnt that some workers of the farm in question were reportedly also suffering from flu. But a senior official in the Sindh health department said that he had no knowledge about any avian influenza case in humans in recent days.

The city government’s focal person on avian influenza, Dr Aslam Pervez, said that he had been told by some officials that samples had been sent to the national reference laboratory on bird flu and any on-the-ground precautionary measures against the spread of bird flu virus in humans could be taken only after getting confirmation from Islamabad.

Sources in the poultry industry said on Wednesday that birds started dying at a farm in Gadap Town about four days ago. Earlier, the number of deaths was low and it was thought that the deaths were due to cold weather. But the situation became alarming when the birds’ mortalities started numbering in the thousands per day.

It was further said that the dead birds were thrown away in landfills and open pits without observing the precautionary scientific process, which increased the chances of the spread of infections, whether it was bird flu or something else, through wild birds and other animals.

A livestock department official said that if lab tests confirmed that it was indeed avian influenza, then the farms involved would be asked through the CDGK poultry officer to ensure immediate culling of birds and their scientific disposal, while moves would be taken for further inspection of poultry farms in the vicinity.

One young man, identifying himself as the owner of the farm in question, said that he was a medical student and knew the bird flu phenomenon and that was why he had been keeping the poultry officers of the Sindh government informed about the disease and deaths.

‘12,000 birds lost’

“During the last four or five days I have lost almost all of my 12,000 broiler birds of four weeks, who were kept in two sheds in Gadap Town. I had ensured all the routine vaccination to the birds, except the avian influenza (AI) vaccines,” he said, adding that the government officials had told him that there was no need to vaccinate the broiler birds against AI.

Another source said that the magnitude of the deaths of birds and the symptoms of the disease gave the impression that the development was very similar to avian influenza, which had already affected some other poultry forms in Gadap and Bin Qasim towns as well as farms in some other parts of the province.

The national poultry disease reference laboratory last confirmed the presence of the AI virus in Karachi in the first week of April, 2007. Prior to that confirmation from Islamabad, between 4,000 and 7,000 birds had died of the viral infection while about 28,000 birds were killed at three Gadap Town farms, as maintained then by the farms and provincial livestock department.