Poultry body chief allays fears on spread of Avian flu
Our Bureau
Pune, Jan 4: Alleging that ``vested interests'' were working against the domestic poultry industry, president of the World Poultry Science Association (WPSA), Anuradha Desai hit out at the opinion voiced in a section of the press that the disease could cross the specie barrier and infect human beings.She said the WPSA was watching the situation and could send a team of scientists to Hong Kong. Desai said the wholesale killing of chicken and other poultry in Hong Kong on the basis of a fear of avian influenza had left her ``puzzled.'' She pointed out that avian influenza which had occurred twice in the US, wiping out huge numbers of birds, had no record anywhere of affecting human beings. Meanwhile, sources indicated that the wholesale slaughter of poultry, undertaken by the government of Hong Kong, was part of its effort to do away with live killings. These sources said that almost 95 per cent of Hong Kong's poultry was imported in processed form from the US and the UK while a meagre 5 per cent came
in the form of live, unprocessed, birds from mainland China. This move is believed to be the first to clean up the industry. Sources suggested that the other areas of the region, like Malaysia and Indonesia where also live killing takes place, could be next in line for such action. Supporting their argument, these sources pointed to the slaughter of chickens which was carried out not on the farms in mainland China nor at the holding sheds in HK. Since Avian `flu is a very swift killer, there should have been deaths on the farms in the Chinese province which has around 400 million birds, or in the holding sheds in HK. The birds would not have survived that long, they pointed out. Desai said that as a precautionary measure, she had alerted a satellite laboratory of the Venkateshwara Hatcheries group (VH) in Chandigarh to carry out random checks on all migratory birds which would give indications on the presence of such a `flu. So far, there has been no such indication, she added. She welcomed the union
agriculture ministry's clarification that Indian poultry was unlikely to be affected, adding that there was enough technical expertise within the country which can develop within a week vaccines to combat the `flu.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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