The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Bird flu and corporation's predicament

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 24, 2006

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Bird flu and corporation's predicament

A meeting convened by Thiruvananthapuram Mayor C. Jayan Babu on Monday to seek expert opinion on the strategy to counter the threat of avian influenza turned out to be an eye-opener on the limitations of the corporation in crisis management. Experts from the Chief Disease Investigation Office recommended a series of measures to ensure basic sanitation in the scores of poultry farms in the city.

Some of the major proposals include steps to enforce hygienic working conditions in the poultry units and slaughterhouses.

The experts underlined the need for workers to use masks, aprons and gloves. The corporation was also asked to ensure that equipment and slaughter wastes are properly disinfected and safely disposed of.

But the discussions left the most pertinent question hanging in the air. How does the corporation ensure that the safeguards are maintained? Officials are stymied by the challenge. Monitoring each one of the poultry farms dotting the city is impractical, they admit. Citizens point out that the corporation is not even capable of checking the careless disposal of slaughter wastes in public places.

For now, the local body has decided to work in tandem with the district administration and the Government machinery to enforce safety guidelines.

T. Nandakumar

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