Sources said a high-level meeting was held under the chairmanship of Minfal secretary Ismail Qureshi to review avian flu situation in Pakistan, which was also attended by director-generals of provincial livestock departments, representatives from the health ministry and the poultry sector.
They said a new strategy, to be implemented by Minfal, provincial governments and the private sector, includes establishment of quick response mechanism for early diagnosis, reporting, upgradation of laboratory facilities and setting up of disease surveillance and monitoring teams in provinces.
The meeting was informed a national plan costing $6.5 million has been prepared for presentation at the Geneva conference early next month for imparting training to provincial staff to handle any suspected outbreak of bird flu virus.
Sources said though the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu has not been reported in the poultry from any part of the country, yet the Minfal secretary assured provinces and the poultry sector the federal government will provide all financial and technical assistance, if needed.
They said in order to keep H5N1 strain at bay, Pakistan has already imposed ban on poultry and poultry products form 14 avian flu-infected countries including Croatia.
They said keeping in view the involvement of migratory birds in the spread of disease, the meeting decided to also conduct surveillance of wild birds in addition to imposing a ban on import of live fancy/pet birds.