Press Trust of India Posted online: Thursday, January 29, 2004 at 1656 hours IST Updated: Thursday, January 29, 2004 at 1721 hours IST
New Delhi, January 29: Alarmed over reports of bird flu in neighbouring countries, Government on Thursday announced a ban on import of processed poultry food and declared a red alert to prevent spread of the disease.
It has also decided to intensify vigil over passengers of Samjhauta Express from Pakistan.
Health Minister Sushma Swaraj made public these decisions after the first high-level coordination meeting of ministries of health and agriculture.
“More attention is being paid on border states like Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab, where a red alert has been declared,” she told reporters after a meeting which was attended by Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh and representatives of WHO and FAO.
This follows reports of bird flu cases in Pakistan, she said.
Swaraj said that no case of bird flu has been reported in the country till now and state governments had been asked to report to the centre about reports of mass death of chickens or poultry birds.
“The situation is fully under control,” she said.
While a special vigil was being kept on passengers coming by Samjhauta Express from Pakistan, Swaraj said BSF has been asked to be on alert on border states.
The minister commended the role of Punjab government in maintaining strict vigil on passengers from Pakistan. “We have also completely banned imports of poultry food processed from any country,” she said.
Elaborating on the steps taken by the government to prevent the spread of the disease into the country, she said that the government had taken preventive strategy as also a contingency plan to deal with the situation.
Both agriculture and health ministries have initiated strict vigil and letters have been sent to the state chief secretaries with adequate guidelines to deal with the situation.
The states have been told that in case of mass death of poultry birds, they should kill and burn the rest of the flock as who has warned that the dead birds carried the virus for 10 days.
A special advisory has been given to the northeastern states to be on the alert on bird flu as they border Myanmar, which has reported such cases.
The meeting also decided to send an advisory to the environment ministry asking it to report any group death of migratory birds to the ministries of health and animal husbandry.
