Pakistan confirms first two cases of H5N1

Lab tests on chickens have confirmed Pakistan’s first two cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

H5 avian influenza was detected in chickens at two farms in north-western Pakistan last month.

Tests conducted in Britain confirmed the sub-type to be H5N1.

The Agriculture Ministry said it had taken all necessary measures to stop it spreading further in Pakistan, but urged farmers to be vigilant.

“We are continuously watching to see whether there is another outbreak elsewhere (in Pakistan),” ministry spokesman Mohammed Afzal told Geo television.

Neighbouring India, Iran and, most recently, Afghanistan have already reported H5N1 outbreaks, but officials confirmed this was the first in Pakistan.

“This has never happened in our life. This is for the first time in our history that this (H5N1) has been reported,” said Rana Mohammed Akhlaq, the ministry’s deputy animal husbandry commissioner.

Pakistan’s two cases were detected at a commercial farm in Charsadda, near Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, and at a small breeder farm in the hill resort city of Abbottabad.

The ministry said the farms were quarantined, 25,000 chickens slaughtered and farm workers given medical check-ups. The workers were found to be free of infection.

“So far no new farm or bird has been found to be affected with the disease anywhere in the country,” a ministry statement said.

It urged all poultry farmers to increase the level of “bio-security” at their farms and immediately report any abnormal or high mortality among poultry.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed or forced the slaughter of tens of millions of chickens and ducks across Asia since 2003, and recently spread to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Health officials fear H5N1 could evolve into a virus that can be transmitted easily between people and become a global pandemic.

About 100 people have died from the disease worldwide, two thirds of them in Indonesia and Vietnam, according to the World Health Organisation.

In 2003, between three million and four million chickens were killed in Pakistan after an outbreak of the less dangerous H7N3 strain of bird flu.