Indian father pleads to see sick 4-yr-old

Experts, industry cry fowl over Govt flip-flop

Mumbai , Feb. 19

AFTER a few hours of brisk business on Sunday morning, Abdul sits close
to an iron cage crammed with chicken in a licensed market in South
Mumbai. His hands and clothes still stained with signs of the morning
sale, Abdul does not believe that bird flu has affected poultry in parts of
Maharashtra.

In the trade for over 20 years, he recalls 2003 when bird flu panic drove
down chicken prices. It is a conspiracy to malign the poultry industry, he
says. A black slate board hangs over his head with Rs 54 chalked on it,
indicating the day's price on broiler chicken.

Abdul's disbelief may stem from concerns over his livelihood. But his
observation finds an echo in substantiated arguments by members of the
scientific community and the poultry industry.

Why were they so secretive, asks a veterinary scientist. Bird deaths in
large numbers had been reported over the last 10 days, but the
Government insisted it was due to Ranikhet disease, which affects the
nervous system and causes death in older birds.

What has changed since? How has it suddenly become bird flu? And if
there was a suspicion even then, as media reports quote Maharashtra's
Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Mr Hassan Mushrif, why did they
not seal the area immediately, he asks.

If birds were infected earlier in February (when 15,000 birds were
apparently found dead), then diseased birds have already been
transported to other parts of the State and country, as the region was not
sealed. Culling birds now does not rule out the spread of the disease.
And why Nandurbar district? It does not see too much migratory activity,
asks an ornithologist. The Government needs to be more transparent on
the issue, he adds.

"We are confident it is not bird flu," Ms Anuradha Desai, Chairperson of
National Egg Co-ordination Committee, told Business Line.
Companies with the vested interest of selling their drug or vaccine have
stirred this up, she added.

The Poultry Diagnostic Research Centre (PDRC) and Government
laboratories such as the Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (RDDL)
have said that the birds were affected by Ranikhet disease.
"We are shocked. What has changed overnight?" she said, adding that the
issue is being raised with the Prime Minister's Office.

"We have asked for re-examination of the samples and to stop the
culling. If the birds are killed, we will never be able to find out."
The PDRC has screened more than 3,000 samples from across the
country and not found anything wrong. And the first signs of this are
beginning to show at other poultry markets in Mumbai, where prices have
slid to Rs 40 a kg and the crowds have started to dwindle.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/02/20/stories/
2006022002010100.htm]http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/
2006/02/20/stories/2006022002010100.htm

Yikes - The above article has some frightening statements:

"We'll have a meeting Monday and decide what to do."  H5 is news to the medical staff?

"From what we understand there is no need to ear-mark any hospital wards". Hello, this is a highly contageous disease. Patients should be isolated and staff should use 'isolation technique' and bodily fluid precautions.

"They've received no instructions from the Government on how to handle Bird Flu".  Since when is New Delhi, India a back-woods wide-spot-in-the-road?

Arrrrgrrrhhh !?!