NEW DELHI, 30 January 2004 — The Indian government said yesterday it has banned all poultry imports from all countries following the outbreak in Asia of a deadly bird flu virus. “India has completely banned the import of poultry (products) from any country following the outbreak of the deadly bird flu,” Health Minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters here.
“We are on an alert in the border areas. Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and the northeastern border states are on a heightened vigil.”
She said no case of a bird death due to the flu had been reported from any part of the country. “The situation is very much under control,” she said.
Swaraj said a special vigil would be maintained in Punjab where a passenger train from Pakistan crosses into India. Passengers would be frisked if necessary.
Pakistan’s Poultry Association has said the virus has killed 3.5 million chickens on some 3,000 farms around the commercial port city Karachi since November.
“We have written to state governments to keep a close watch and report to the federal government if there is even a single case of a death of a flock of birds,” Swaraj said.
“We have advised that all hens in the area should be destroyed if such a case occurs as the flu stays alive for at least 10 days after the death of the host bird,” she said. An alert against the deadly disease had been extended to migratory birds.
V.K. Taneja, commissioner of the Animal Husbandry Department, said the ban would not affect domestic supplies of poultry as only negligible amounts were imported. “Only some processed food is being imported by five star hotels,” he said.
The Indian health minister said officials from the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) had written to the government as they wanted to evolve a joint plan of action to deal with the outbreak.
She said India had offered to host such a meeting. The minister added that persons infected by the disease would be treated in normal hospitals as the flu did not spread from one human to another but only from birds.
A testing facility for suspected cases had been set up in a laboratory in Bhopal, capital of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, Swaraj said.
