Lahan, Feb. 15

In a bid to make the district free from bird-flu virus, the district veterinary service office and local police administration have jointly started awareness programme.

Siraha has been enlisted as a district with high risk of bird-flu virus as the southern part of the district shares open border with India and that there are nearly 250 hatchery farms with capacity of 200 to 3,000 fowls in operation.

Moreover, to the emergence of bird-flu in eastern districts of Nepal, increasing the risk of transmission of virus led the administrations to launch awareness drive.

Kishor Chaudhary, the deputy chief district officer of Siraha, said that the office would allow fowls from other districts to enter Siraha only after checking certificates of respective hatchery farms, prompt monitoring and inspection where the fowls and avian are found dead and send the samples to the centre and tighten inspection in the border.

According to Ram Kumar Thakur, chief of district veterinary service office, a team of armed police force on Tuesday confiscated around 500 fowls brought from Sunsari as part of the programme.

The decision to commence awareness programme was decided earlier at a meeting in presence of chief district office, hatchery entrepreneurs and media persons.

CDO Birendra Kumar Yadav said that each and every sphere of the society needed to be conscious about the transmission of the disease and work together to prevent it from entering the district.