Panic spreads over outbreak of bird flu

Itahari, January 18:

The outbreak of bird flu in Kakarvitta of Jhapa has spread a kind of terror among the Sunsari locals. They said the Livestock Service Office and the local administration have paid no heed to control the entry of the deadly disease into the district. Itahari, a municipality Sunsari, is just 91 km far from Kakarvitta, which has been declared a bird flu crisis area following the positive confirmation of bird flu outbreak on Friday.

Birds and chicken were still being imported freely in southern Sunsari, locals said. Neither security personnel nor experts have been mobilised, despite a high risk of the spread of the disease, they said. Dev Kumar Yadav of Kaptangunj said poultry products and poultry farming tools were entering Nepal freely from the bordering villages of Dewangunj, Kaptangunj, Laukahi, Sahebgunj, Bhantabari, Ghuski and Amaduwa. Yadav said the police had taken no action to control the entry of poultry products due to the lack of instructions despite locals’ plea. Locals said the birds were being ferried across the Saptakoshi from India’s Birpur.