By A Staff Reporter, Kathmandu, Mar.30: Bird flu, also known as avian influenza (H5N8), has been detected in Kathmandu Valley again.

The Department of Livestock Services said the virus had been found in the livestock reared by farmers in Nakhu in Lalitpur Metropolitan City-14.

Bird flu was detected last Friday while testing PCR samples of ducks, chickens and battai reared by farmers in Nakhu at the Central Veterinary Disease Investigation Laboratory, Tripureshwor, read the press statement of the Department.

The area has culled 516 ducks, 854 local chickens, 154 battai, 944 eggs and 335 kg feeds, it said.

Bird flu seen at Nakhu of Lalitpur Metropolitan City has come under control, the Department said. 

This is the sixth case of bird flu in Nepal this year.

Earlier, bird flu was detected in three places -- Surkhet, Jajarkot and Tarkeshwar in Kathmandu.

“Skilled manpower has been mobilised and all possible measures have been taken in cooperation with the livestock service related bodies at the federal, province and local levels to contain the spread of the virus from the area where bird flu has been confirmed,” it said.

The Department has urged all to receive veterinary certificate mandatorily after getting health check-up in course of transporting poultry products, to adopt biological safety measures in the farm premises, to disinfect farm premises regularly and to pay special attention on personal hygiene as well as to inform concerned bodies if the fowls fall ill or die unnaturally.