KARACHI, Feb 25: Experts have called for a better surveillance of poultry birds and use of a foolproof mechanism for the detection of the Avian Influenza virus. They regretted the recent elimination and disposal of hundreds of birds suspected to be infected with the H5N1 virus at a Malir farm was carried out under no official supervision.

The poultry farmers’ association maintained that the owner of the affected poultry farm, Mashallah Poultry Farm, had been persuaded to cull his birds kept in a farm in the jurisdiction of the Malir cantonment board at the earliest. He had been told time was of the essence in containing the outbreak.

Health and poultry officials said they remained helpless in taking measures on a war footing as they were not taken into confidence as soon as an outbreak was reported.

Following reports about bird deaths in a large number at a poultry farm on the National Highway, the surveillance staff of the Sindh livestock department collected samples from birds suspected to be suffering from some severe diseases for various laboratory tests on Feb 21.

The news that the samples had been tested positive at the national reference laboratory in Islamabad for the H5N1 virus was received in Karachi on the night of Feb 23.

Those officials responsible for culling remained unaware of the development for a long time and had no idea that havoc was being wrought by ‘unauthentic’ culling and other follow-up measures.

A poultry source said that this was not the first time that unofficial culling was done in the city.

About a year back about 47,000 birds were culled while another 20,000 died from the infection at four poultry farms in Gadap town which at a later stage were found to be infected with the H5N1 virus, but no provincial and city government official was aware of it till the time a report about the diseases was leaked to the media outside Karachi.

It was maintained by a senior Sindh government official at that time secrecy would be maintained in such cases in order to prevent a panic situation as it might affect the poultry industry and consumers.

According to an AI contingency plan prepared in the case of Pakistan, awareness in the general public about the diseases and its consequences should continuously be made through media campaigns based on scientific facts and figures. It is important that details of negative results reported by the laboratory in respect of the surveillance samples are periodically furnished to the media and journalists should also be invited to awareness campaigns.

Mohammad Akmal, a young man of 22 years, said he was employed at the farm only about a week back. Though he claimed that he had been working at the poultry farms for the last couple of years, he failed to name Avian Influenza (bird flu) among the birds diseases he had been briefed about.

He said he and four other persons hired by the owner of the farm destroyed the birds suspected to be suffering from the H5N1 virus by gassing them in empty feedbags available at the farm. The bags filled with the dead birds were later dumped into a wide and deep hole on the premises of the farm, which was also refilled, said Mr Kamal, adding that the entire operation took 10-12 hours till Saturday morning and was carried out in the presence of the owner. He conceded that no government poultry or health official was present on the occasion.

A team of poultry and health officials of the city district government of Karachi, deputy secretary of the Sindh health department, a WHO surveillance officer and a couple of newsmen, however, during their visit to the farm found that the well containing the dead infected birds was half filled, and sub-soil water was in evidence.

It was felt that unscientific culling of birds and their dumping in a well, instead of burial in a purposefully prepared pit, might lead to the contamination of subsoil water, which could also be drawn by some other poultry and vegetable farmers and animals of the areas along the Malir riverbed.

The district officer for poultry, Asadullah Shah Bukhari, told Dawn that he with his team reached the farm in on Sunday to carry out the spray of disinfectants at the farm and areas close to it and inspect a couple of other nearby farms.

He said the land had got a natural mechanism of filtration and decontamination and he could say that there a very little chance of contamination of sub-soil water, particularly when the dead birds were sealed in bags.

Under an approved standard operation process (SOP)for and disposal of dead birds in the wake of a bird flu outbreak sufficient sets of personnel protective equipment, mobile disinfection units equipped with protective clothing for all the persons involved in the operation, night-time illumination devices, digging and burial equipment, sufficient depopulation crew to avoid overworking, stock of antiviral drugs, gas, drugs or devices to sedate, stun and depopulate flocks, appropriate containers or plastic bags for disposing of infected material were needed.

In areas which allow burial as a means of disposal, a pit must be prepared as soon as a bird flu outbreak is confirmed. The pit must be at least two metres wide and two meters deep to dispose of 300 birds. All non-disinfectable, biodegradable material (wood, cardboard) must be buried with the animals and the carcasses must be covered with a layer of calcium hydroxide and then with a layer of bleach, at least 40 centimetres, the SOPs included in many other related requirements.

Before this latest bird flu outbreak at the Malir farm, a private farm and a government farm were also declared infected with the dreaded AI virus in the first week of January. The first government organised culling and disposal of birds could be seen only in the case of the private farm, while the government farm caretakers preferred to carry out culling at night to avoid the media and government supervision.

Infection-control steps

Commenting on the infection control measures the poultry farmers claimed to have observed, the registrar/secretary of the Pakistan Veterinary Medical Council, Dr Alamdar Hussain Malik, said the recent outbreaks of the H5N1 virus in poultry farms in Karachi and the response and concern shown by the provincial livestock department, the Pakistan poultry association and the city government completely showed that no proper awareness of the culling procedure spelled out by the WHO.

Dr Malik said direct contact with infected poultry, or surfaces and objects contaminated by their faeces, was considered the main route of human infection. As infected birds shed large quantities of virus in their faeces, opportunities for exposure to infected droppings or to environments contaminated by the virus are abundant under such conditions, he said, adding that because many households in Asia depended on poultry for income and food, many families sold or slaughtered and consumed birds when signs of illness appeared in a flock, and this practice had proved difficult to change.

Dr Malik stressed that the federal ministry for food, agriculture and livestock without any further delay should start registration of the poultry farms and categorized them according to existing bio-security practices and the legislations pertaining to regulating poultry farm practices must be completed in the shortest possible time. He further demanded that the epidemiological studies must be carried out to find out that how the H5N1 virus landed at the affected poultry farms. He further said that the laboratories at the provincial level must be strengthened with the technology to confirm the H5N1 virus so there was no need to send samples to Islamabad.

The executive district officer (agriculture) of the CDGK, Shabbir Ahmed Bhurt, said that a notification of a set of bylaws aiming at improved bio-security measures and healthy production of birds at farms would be issued in a few days.

Replying to another question, he said the execution of culling and other relevant operation was the sole responsibility of the district officers of the poultry division, but unfortunately hand not been informed by by the provincial livestock department and farmers.

In the meantime, doctors of the city district government told Dawn that the farm worker Mohammad Akram and a worker of another nearby farm where he was staying were being checked on a regular basis and till Monday they were all well. However, the officials concerned had been unable to get the whereabouts of other persons associated with the culling of the infected birds at the Mashallah farm for hours on Saturday.