Nepal to cull 500,000 chickens near Kathmandu to combat major bird flu outbreak

[PAULSTANL3Y]

Nepal to cull 500,000 chickens near Kathmandu to combat major bird flu outbreak
ABC Updated August 16, 2013, 3:54 pm

Half a million chickens are to be culled in a district on the outskirts of Nepal's capital Kathmandu, as efforts to combat a major outbreak of bird flu are stepped up.

Tens of thousands of birds have already been killed in what government officials have described as one of the country's worst outbreaks of avian flu.

Now authorities in the Himalayan nation have declared the area of Bhaktapur an emergency zone.

Some 62 cases of bird flu have been recorded at 250 poultry farms in three districts in the past few weeks, officials said.

A spokesman for the Directorate of Animal Health said the government ordered the cull to be stepped up after a week-long ban imposed on the sales of poultry products failed to control the H5N1 virus.

"We could not control it (the outbreak) because the supply of poultry products continued despite the ban," Narayan Ghimire said.

"Now, the poultry farmers have joined us in our battle. We are sure we will control it."

Nepal's first outbreak of bird flu was in January 2009.

H5N1, a common strain of bird flu, has killed 377 people globally between 2003 until July 5 this year, according to the World Health Organisation.

No human deaths from bird flu have been reported in Nepal.