No avian flu in Penang: State Veterinary Services Department (Updated)

GEORGE TOWN: The State Veterinary Services Department today slammed irresponsible people for posting pictures of chickens and eggs being destroyed allegedly at Kampung Valdor, Sungai Bakap.
"This is not true. There is no avian flu outbreak in Penang," said the department director Dr Siti Salmiyah Tahir.
The pictures and text messages saying it happened at Kampung Valdor has been circulating causing untold panic among members of the public.
Furthermore the viral message claimed eggs and chickens were being destroyed on the quiet due to an unspecified disease outbreak.
Siti Salmiyah said the pictures, she believe is not taken in Malaysia and possibly somewhere else.
Till date, she added, no chicken breeder in the state had filed a complaint of their birds dying of the disease.
theSun also sighted a Penang Veterinary Department Services letter stating Penang was not affected by avian influenza.
To date, the only Kelantan had reported an outbreak of the H5N1 strained which was detected on March 8.
Authorities there have since destroyed 33,153 poultry and 13,342 eggs to stem the outbreak in the state.

Meanwhile, in PETALING JAYA, the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) confirmed that there are no new locations found in Kelantan with H5N1 avian flu infections.
DVS said in a statement today that operations conducted two nights ago included taking 135 samples from 27 premises.
This is in addition to disposing 1,367 poultry livestock and 627 eggs, it said.
“In total, 28 locations have been confirmed positive with the H5N1 virus in six areas – Kota Baru (14 locations), Pasir Mas (six), Tumpat (three), Pasir Puter (three), Tanah Merah (one) and Bachok (one).
“The total figure of livestock that has been disposed is 34,520 and 13,969 eggs, while operations included obtaining samples,” it said, adding that livestock which has been disposed did not mean it was all infected.
However, it was vital to form a buffer to prevent it from spreading, it said, adding that monitoring teams that were deployed covered a radius of between one and 10km at each location.