Bird Flu Virus Detected in East Nepal

from BBC Monitoring South Asia ..

Text of report headlined "Bird flu virus detected in Jhapa, again" published by private Nepalese eKantipur website on 20 February

Kathmandu, 20 February [Friday]: The avian influenza virus has been detected in a village of eastern Jhapa District a few weeks after the government claimed that the viral disease that affects the birds has been controlled.

H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus, the causative agent of the dreaded bird flu disease, has been detected in a chicken sample collected from Sharanamati VDC [village development committee] of the district, spokesperson at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives Hari Dahal said.

"The virus was controlled in Kakarbhitta earlier but it has been detected in a village [Sharanamati] which lies 35-40 km away from India." Dahal informed.

The virus was detected in a chicken imported illegally from India.

"A rapid response team has been sent to the area where the virus was detected today and another team will leave tomorrow," he added.

Nepal had managed to remain unscathed by the avian virus even after it was traced in neighboring villages of India and the first outbreak of the disease was confirmed in mid-January.

After the first outbreak of the disease in the country on 16 January, the government had declared emergency in the area that lay within a radius of ten km from the quarantine office in Kakarbhitta of Jhapa.

Originally published by eKantipur.com website, Kathmandu, in English 20 Feb 09.

(c) 2009 BBC Monitoring South Asia. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

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