Myanmar has been taking more preventive measures against bird flu in the aftermath of the recent outbreak of the avian influenza in Yangon, calling on the public to cooperate with the authorities for the move.

The official newspaper New Light of Myanmar Thursday outlined a number of steps for chicken breeders in the country to follow strictly to help prevent the outbreak of the disease.

Breeders and those who process and handle fowls, ducks and quails are urged to follow the reminder of the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department (LBVD) strictly for the prevention.

The reminder warned outsiders not to enter the poultry farms, calling on farmers to make arrangements also to prevent domestic birds, crows, pigeons and sparrows from entering the farms.

It also advised separation of houses and poultry farms, reiterating warning against sleeping in the farms and depots where live domestic fowls are sold.

The advice also includes reporting soonest to the authorities of any suspicious bird deaths and having them buried systematically.

According to a daily report of the LBVD carried on the Thursday 's official newspaper, although there were more deaths of crows, pigeons and sparrows as well as one domestic chicken found in some 16 townships in Yangon on Wednesday, bird flu virus was not detected on them with the conclusion that no new bird flu virus was reported to have been present for five days since last Saturday on such deaths in Yangon's townships amid the latest outbreak of bird flu in the former capital city since the end of February.

The authorities assumed the deaths of these crows, quails, pigeons and sparrows might be due to the residue of disinfectant used in the poultry farms among measures taken against the bird flu outbreak which include pesticide spraying in the areas.

Meanwhile, movement of crows and sparrows are under strict control and people are advised to avoid eating, selling and undisciplined dumping of dead fowls and birds as well as to pay serious attention to bio-security at poultry farms.

The LBVD has also urged pet keepers to keep their dogs and cats away from eating dead crows, sparrows, pigeons and wild birds, and not to directly use concentrate disinfectant on infected farms.

According to statistics, four townships in Yangon -- Mayangon, Thingungyun, Insein and Hlaingtharya were detected with the bird flu virus so far since the outbreak.

Of the four bird-flu-affected townships, the Mayangon and Hlaingtharya have been inspected the regional bird flu coordinator of the Food and Agricultural Organization and the bird flu bio- security expert and laboratory technician of the USAID, according to Thursday's official report which added that bird flu prevention equipment are being initially donated by some international organizations.

Suspicious avian influenza was first detected in a small private poultry farm in northwestern Yangon's Mayangon suburban township after laboratory test was done on some dead chickens on Feb. 27.

The authorities have placed the areas in a radius of one km to the affected farm as restriction zone and three townships of Mayangon, Yankin and South Okkalapa in a radius of 10 km as bird movement control zone, temporarily closing livestock trading markets within the control zone for three weeks.

Deepened detection of the root cause of the disease has been underway since then.

According to the LBVD, no human cases have so far been detected with bird flu virus in Myanmar despite close monitoring on 300 people who were in touch with birds carrying H5N1 but a special hospital has been arranged for treatment of those suspected of being with the virus.

When the bird flu was first reported near the end of February, a total of over 1,300 chickens suspected of carrying the deadly H5N1 virus were slaughtered as an initial step by the authorities to deal with the fresh outbreak of the disease.

The recurrence of the deadly influenza came nearly six months after Myanmar declared itself bird-flu-free in the country in September last year after making sure then that no virus had been present in the country during a three-month program on detection of avian influenza carried out with the cooperation of foreign experts.

Myanmar was first struck by an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in March 2006 in two divisions of Mandalay and Sagaing and since then altogether 342,000 chickens, 320,000 quails and 180,000 eggs as well as 1.3 tons of feedstuff were destroyed at 545 poultry farms.

Observers here believe that strict taking of the outlined preventive measures and observance of the LBVD reminders would help contain the disease sooner.

Source: Xinhua