The Centre will set up two more BSL-3 laboratories in Kolkata and Guwahati, apart from the one existing at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Delhi, with a view to strengthen the surveillance capacity against avian flu.

Besides putting in place a strategic plan for pandemic preparedness, equipments like ventilators and semi-automatic analyzers are being procured for critical management, following the reports of the outbreak of the avian influenza flu in some countries.

A high-level review meeting to take stock of the preparedness for dealing with any outbreak of Avian Influenza in the country was held under the chairmanship of Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss here on Tuesday. The meeting was attended by Secretary, Health & Family Welfare, Director General of Health Services, Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research and other senior scientists and officials.

It was noted with satisfaction that since the outbreak of Avian Flue during January 2006, surveillance capacity has been considerably strengthened.

The Health Minister emphasized the need to keep state governments in a state of readiness and to create effective emergency response mechanisms for tackling the outbreak and spread of the disease. He also stressed on proactive measures like preparation of contingency plan, constitutional and training rapid response teams, standard operating procedures, stockpiling of anti-viral drugs, personal protective equipments, etc.

Last year, tens of thousands of chickens had died in the country due to bird flu. Health and poultry industry inspectors reportedly slaughtered 500,000 birds in a 1.5-mile radius around poultry farms in the town of Navapur, a small town in Maharastra where the confirmed cases were detected.

As per the reports, the H5N1 virus, which causes avian influenza, has killed at least 164 people worldwide since 2003, most of them in Asia, and more than 200 million birds have died or have been culled to prevent its spread.

Six countries have already banned any imports of poultry from the UK due to the outbreak of avian influenza. Ireland, Russia, Hong Kong, South Africa, South Korea and Japan have banned UK poultry meat, live birds and hatching eggs.