Officials Being Pressurised to Hide Information about Virus

This online news article from Karachi, Pakistan, reports dissatisfaction among officials of the Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) with international media coverage of the impact of the presence of bird flu in Pakistan and India. An official of the poultry industry states that since avian flu was reported in 1997, fears about it being a pandemic have decreased because, according to the official, there is a belief that when the virus is mutated, it may die or become weak. As a result of this perception, the lack of focus from the news media, and daily industry losses of around Rs300 million per day, officials of the poultry industry report facing hostility from farm owners.

They also allege receiving pressure from poultry farmers to hide information about the existence of the bird flu to try to halt farmers' financial losses. The official interviewed described a period in 2003 when, allegedly, the presence of avian flu was hidden, until the Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) reported to news organisations the death of 3 million chickens.


With the lack of news prioritisation of avian flu, officials fear increased hostility in their relations with poultry farmers because, if the situation continues, as stated here, hundreds of thousands of people would lose their source of livelihood, since over one million people work in the poultry industry. The PPA calculates the current month (February 2008) of financial losses to be Rs7.5 billion due to culling of chickens after the reported presence of bird flu at three poultry farms in Karachi.