Officers zero in on Kinta Nature Park
NST, 22 Mar 2006

BATU GAJAH, PERAK: Seeking the origin of the virulent H5N1 which has spread throughout Perak, the Department of Veterinary Services is concentrating its efforts on the Kinta Nature Park, 3km from here.

The 950ha former mining pond houses a thriving community of wild birds such as purple herons, black-crowned night herons, cattle egrets, grey herons, little egrets and another 130 species which flock to the park during their annual migration cycle.

Yesterday, a team of veterinary officers from Ipoh, assisted by Wildlife Department     staff,     collected        six 

samples from different species and sent them to the Ipoh-based Veterinary Research Institute to find out if the wild birds were carriers of the lethal virus.

The yet-to-be-gazetted Kinta Nature Park is only 5km from Kg Changkat Tualang, Gopeng, where the H5N1 virus was detected last Thursday. As a result, thousands of birds were culled in an operation within a one-km radius of the village.

The veterinary team had to use shotguns to bring down the birds at the park to enable them to take the faecal samples before burying them.