Cleared of bird flu

NST: Test results show that the 11 wild pigeons found dead in Sungai Petani last week were not infected by bird flu.
Similarly, the tests on 100 pigeons which died in Bidor earlier also came out negative.
However, the good news is clouded by the possibility that the number of samples analysed by the Veterinary Research Institute (VRI) may not be enough to come to a definite conclusion that all the birds that died were free of the disease.
VRI director Dr Sharifah Syed Hassan said more random samples of live and especially dead pigeons from Bidor and Sungai Petani should have been given to the institute for it to conclude safely that the pigeon flocks in these two areas were free of the deadly disease.
The two states provided only 11 samples consisting of pigeon faeces and live and dead birds.
The Perak Department of Veterinary Services sent one carcass on Saturday and five live birds on Sunday from Bidor while its Kedah counterpart sent four faeces samples yesterday morning and one carcass yesterday evening from Sungai Petani.
Dr Sharifah said the samples were not enough to rule out with certainty the presence of bird flu or other dangerous diseases caused by the Newcastle and the West Nile viruses among all the birds.
"At least five dead and five live pigeons should have been collected from each location for the tests," she told reporters at the institute here today.
She said all seven pigeon carcasses had been sent to the Chemistry Department to determine other factors which might have killed them.
In Kuala Lumpur, the director-general of the Veterinary Services Department, Datuk Dr Hawari Hussein said that Malaysia was tightening controls at the border with Thailand and conducting checks at farms and on wild birds.
"Our chicken and ducks are free of the bird flu.
"We carry out constant sampling drives at chicken and duck farms nationwide," he said.
The director of the conservation division of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Siti Hawa Yassim, said tests on waterfowls was ongoing. So far, the results showed they were free of the disease.
"We are helping the Veterinary Services Department to catch birds in Kuala Gula, the Matang Forest Reserve, Perak, and Tanjung Karang, Kapar and Pulau Ketam, Selangor.
"Tests have been carried out on the Plober, Sandpiper, Stint, Curlew and Snipe species and all samples were found negative," she said.
She said unlike China, the threat posed by wild birds in Malaysia was minimal because their number was very small.