Winged trouble? A pair of bar-headed geese

Shimla, Nov. 4: The roadside dhabas in Himachal Pradesh could turn into hubs of a deadly new infection that kills far more swiftly than AIDS.

It’s the bird flu, which has struck several Asian and east European nations and prompted the Centre to sound a countrywide alert against migratory birds triggering an outbreak this winter.

Over half-a-dozen large water bodies in Himachal serve as the winter home of thousands of birds, belonging to some 76 species, who fly in from Europe, Siberia and China. Many of these species have already tested positive for the bird flu virus, H5N1, which infects both birds and humans.

One of the species known to carry the virus is the bar-headed geese, some 60-75 per cent of whose global population visits the state every year, state wildlife sources said.

“This year, more bar-headed geese are coming compared with previous years. Already more than 30,000 have reached Pong lake,” a wildlife official said.

What makes matters worse is that the migratory birds, especially the bar-headed geese, are killed and served or sold as duck or chicken by the dhabas dotting the banks of the rivers Beas and Sutlej and the Pong lake.

“Unchecked sale of geese meat labelled as duck or chicken to unsuspecting customers can spell doom in the state. The deadly virus remains active for more than a week,” the official said.

Eating infected birds, if the meat is properly cooked, does not carry a high risk, though; the real danger lies in feathering, slaughtering and handling the raw meat of such a bird.

“The migratory birds venture out into the rivers and lakes and the fields of farmers,” an official said. These birds freely mix with domestic fowl, ducks and swans and can infect them.

Officials in neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir ? which also hosts hundreds of thousands of migratory birds every winter ? have said the state might sound a red alert after Id.

The bird flu can currently spread to humans only from birds, but scientists fear that the steadily mutating virus might exchange genes with human influenza viruses and gain the ability to spread from person to person through coughs and sneezes. If that happens, it could sweep across the globe, killing millions.

The 20th century witnessed three influenza pandemics, with the worst in 1918-19 killing 40-50 million people.

Officials said a cause for worry is that Himachal Pradesh has no bird experts.

“Nor do we have the satellite tracking system, which can keep an eye on the migratory birds. We, however, have set up 40 societies of locals who will monitor the birds along with wildlife and animal husbandry officials,” an official said.

“Migratory birds’ blood samples will be collected and sent to laboratories in Jalandhar and Bhopal,” irrigation and public health minister Kaul Singh Thakur said.