Here’s a wake-up call for this Himalayan nation.

A Cabinet meeting headed by PM Prachanda said that Nepal has detected its first bird flu case of the season.

While speaking on this, Nepal’s agriculture Minister, Jai Prakash Prasad Gupta stated, “The virus has been found in chicken and ducks. We have confirmed it is H5N1 virus.”

The minister informed the media persons that the deadly H5N1 bird flu was reported in poultry from the southeast Nepal town of Kakarvitta, bordering India.

The 10-kilometer region of Kakarbhitta has already been declared as ‘an emergency area’. The administration has also given the orders to cull poultry birds within the range of three kilometers from the affected location.

Apart from this, the government has also directed the local administration to reuse the equipment used in slitting the birds only after the sterilization process.

The country has earlier, banished import of birds and other poultry products as the bird flu was found in different regions of India bordering Nepal.

It may be here recalled that since its first outburst in the year 2006, India has culled down millions of poultry and ducks to control the virus. Moreover, India has not reported any human infections up till now.

Experts do believe that H5N1 virus might combine with the highly infectious seasonal influenza virus and ignite a virus that could kill millions of people across the globe.

As per the WHO figures, H5N1 bird flu has infected over 390 people in 15 countries and killed at least 247 of them since the virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003.