Department flooded with bird calls

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: The Veterinary Services Department has received more than 400 “bird calls” since Monday.
With staff straining to contain the avian flu scare, these calls have unnecessarily thrown enforcers off the track, as they were largely complaints about chickens making a lot of noise.
“I’m sorry to say that we do not cover those kind of problems,” said operations room director Dr Abu Hassan Muhammad Ali, adding that such matters were under the jurisdiction of City Hall or other local authorities.
Apart from complaints of the birds making a racket and neighbours rearing chickens, the department had also been deluged with calls to clean up dead birds lying in the streets.
“Birds die of natural causes. That’s normal. It does not necessarily mean that the birds had died of the avian flu. The complainants themselves can bury the dead birds,” he added.
“It is impossible for us to test every bird that dies outside the 10km radius (of the area affected by the flu).
“We do hope that the public will understand,” he said.
The calls received by the department also touched on whether it was safe to eat chicken.
Dr Abu Hassan said there should be no worries about having a chicken meal if it was cooked properly. He added that there were calls from Sabah and Sarawak too.
Many callers also complained about people keeping fighting cocks in their neighbourhood.
There are only about 20 veterinary staff in the Federal Territory to cover the affected area in Setapak and other areas beyond the 10km radius.
“Obviously, they have to work extra hours and be on 24-hour stand-by,” Dr Abu Hassan said, adding that culling operations had stopped for now.