No chicken, no eggs and at least 133 people dead of avian flu that can spread from chickens to humans... the disaster scenario of disease striking the very heart of kitchens came true in 10 Asian countries, but India is finally free of it with stringent controls and a home grown vaccine that can kill the virus.
According to WHO Regional Director for Southeast Asia Samlee Plianbangchang, the H5N1 strain of avian flu virus infected humans in 10 countries with 231 human cases being reported, including 133 fatalities.
India, too, reported an outbreak of the disease in western India's Jalgaon town February this year, but there were no human cases. In the months since then, authorities worked relentlessly to localise the disease to one region and finally declared the country avian flu free last week.
No fresh avian flu outbreaks have been reported in the last three months since the completion of the culling, cleaning and sanitising processes.
As India complied with all protocols necessary for being notified bird flu-free from the international animal health agency OIE. scientists at the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal announced that they had developed a vaccine against the deadly disease -- a first for India.
"We developed the avian influenza vaccine within a short span of four months. The vaccine, developed for the first time in India, can kill the H5N1 virus and is also capable of preventing its further spread," said head of the research team, Dr Harekrishna Pradhan.
The vaccine, which needs to be given through the intra-muscular route, can be used during a bird flu outbreak and is capable of preventing its spread up to five to ten km or more, he said.
"We are now working to develop a diagnostic test that can differentiate vaccinated and infected birds," said the scientist.
While the notification does not rule out a recurrence, the country's Animal Husbandry Department is hopeful that the surveillance and other preventive steps taken will prevent a repeat outbreak.
"As we have not had an avian flu outbreak after the outbreak in Jalgaon (in Maharashtra state) for three months, we are in a position to claim disease free certificate. Our preparedness will always be there," Animal Husbandry Department Secretary P.M.A. Hakeem said at the end of a two-day review meeting of Asian countries.
He said India was planning to put in place four more hi-tech animal disease-testing laboratories ahead of the next season of migration of birds to prevent recurrence of the disease.
OIE regional representative for Asia and Pacific region Teruhide Fujita also endorsed that India had been adhering to the protocol laid down by the global body ahead of and during the avian flu outbreak.
Officials of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) added that India had taken adequate steps to contain the spread of the disease post outbreak.
The meeting, hosted by India, was attended by ministerial representatives from 13 countries, including China, Thailand, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
A Delhi Declaration adopted at the meeting said it was decided to develop a common framework under existing regional Asian forums like ASEAN and SAARC for better preparedness for pandemic threat and appropriate control measures.
According to Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, the preparedness and surveillance mechanism put in place in India a year and a half before the outbreak in February this year had helped reduce the adverse impact and contained the disease to one region.
The disease free tag could not have come sooner for India's poultry industry, which last year exported products worth 6.2 billion rupees ($133 million). Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the disease-free notification would help India in its poultry exports and improve the health of the poultry industry.
"The Indian industry has suffered huge losses. While the market has been practically restored with prices at normal levels, it will take one to two years for the industry to recoup losses," said Pawar.
"We are looking to the opening up of the export market with the notification by the government that India is free of avian flu," said O.P. Singh, CEO of National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC).
"Most countries, particularly in the Middle East, are also waiting for the notification so that they can switch back to India for sourcing eggs."
Many countries prefer to import Indian eggs as they are of good quality besides costing around four times less than those from Europe. Till early this year, India exported around six million eggs daily, including table and hatching varieties.
Though they have conquered the disease, authorities are taking no chances.
Poultry samples are still being tested to ensure that there is no fresh outbreak as in Thailand where the disease re-surfaced after 260 days.
"Though OIE does not require it, we will be putting all the data of testing of all suspected cases on our website as a confidence building measure for the trading community. It will be like an international document so that there is no backtracking," said S.K. Bandhopadyay of the Animal Husbandry Commission.
"Once OIE notifies India is avian flu-free, we will be able to meet the demand not only in the Middle East but in Africa that requires large quantities of hatching eggs," added another senior official.
Indian scientists are getting ready to meet other similar challenges.
At the Bhopal laboratory, one of the 10 containment laboratories in the world of Bio-safetyLevel-4 (BSL-4) standard -- a standard required for work with dangerous and exotic agents that pose a high individual risk of laboratory infections and life-threatening disease -- scientists have developed Elisa tests for diagnosis of three livestock diseases, including the deadly avian influenza.
This technique can be applied for diagnosis of any disease of man or animal and scientists describe it as a revolution in the area of disease diagnosis.
"We have tried in our laboratory and successfully produced the antibodies against bovine immuno deficiency virus, bovine viral diarrhoea virus and avian influenza virus," said head researcher Pradhan.
The guards are in place in India. The task is to make sure that diseases like the avian flu don't cross species and borders - a task scientists and officials admit is more than daunting in today's world.
--By Lola Nayar and Jatindra Dash
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