Profile of Jhapa district

Socioeconomic Status of Jhapa District

• The district is inhibited by about 95 castes
• Majorly Rajbansi inhibits the district after Brahmin and Chhetri
• Limbu is in next to the Rajbansi in population ranking
• Gangai is another group of people residing in south part of Jhapa and are found only in Jhapa district
• Muslim people are found in the down south from east to west of the district
• The economic status of the people especially Muslims,Gangai and Satar is frustrating
• Most of the people residing in the down south part of the district are of low socioeconomic status
• Landless people = 2% (according to DDC record)
• The community members in the southern part of the district are completely unaware about the disease and its socio economic impacts
• Muslim, Rai, Limbu, Tamang are majorly involved in trading of Backyard poultry
• Poultry is considered as the property of women (commonly known as pewa) in Muslim community
• Backyard Poultry trading is found to be an important component of the livelihood of majority of the households in Jhapa district belonging to the Muslim community.
• Around 100 vendors are residing in the district used to collect chickens from the surrounding villages and neighboring districts of India and supply to the nearby markets of Jhapa district namely Damak, Birtamod etc
• The chicken thus collected are then directly transported for consumption in major cities of Nepal especially Kathmandu, Pokhara, Butwal etc
• Commercial poultry trading is also found in developed VDCs of the district, which is in growing stage
• Most of the farms range from 200 to 1000 chicken per farm
• Commercial Poultry rearing is found only in 34 VDCs of the district
• Backyard poultry trading is significantly higher than commercial poultry trading in case of Jhapa
• Rajbansi people do not rear chicken due to the sociological value but they rear duck
• Most community in the district rearing poultry and pig in the same vicinity adopts mixed farming system

Estimation of Poultry Population in Jhapa District:• Total Commercial poultry Population in Jhapa District = 1, 51,530
• Maximum No commercial Poultry is found in Damak Municipality (25,000)
• There are 34 VDCs to rear commercial poultry in Jhapa District
• Rests of the 17 VDCs are without commercial poultry farms
• Total Backyard Poultry Population in Jhapa District = 5, 10,400. The backyard poultry population also varies significantly from one season to the other as backyard poultry is not reared for the economic purpose
• Total Duck Population: 25,000. Duck population widely fluctuates according to the season. The population is significantly greater during the period of July to October

Poultry market

Transportation of Broilers from farm to the slaughter areas:

layers farm:

HPAI Situation in Nepal

Outbreak Situation of Avian Influenza in Jhapa District:
First Outbreak of HPAI in Nepal was officially announced in backyard poultry in Mechinagar Municipality of Jhapa district in 16 January for the first time in Nepal. Ten Rapid Response Teams (RRT) were deployed to control HPAI in outbreak in the Municipality. After killing 26,616 birds in the area, government officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives had said that the HPAI was taken in control on February 9. Details of Stamping out operation are given below in the table:

Second outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was confirmed in Sharanamati village of Jhapa district on February 20 after 150 backyard chickens died two weeks ago belonging to a poultry trader. The Rapid Response Teams (RRT) deployed from the capital to control HPAI in outbreak area has completed its culling and killing operation on 26 February. The RRTs killed 2571 Backyard Poultry, 29 ducks, 271 Pigeon and destroyed 523 eggs belonging to some 446 households of the outbreak area during the five-day operation.

Establishment of the Control Room
Bird flu control room for the Mechinagar Outbreak was established at Municipality office, Ittabhatta and for the Sharanamati Outbreak at Border Police Station, Tangandubba 6, khayarbari under the command of Dr. R.K. Khatiwoda and Dr I. K. Jha respectively.

Establishment of the RRT Camp
To control and contain the disease, RRT camp was established at a primary school near by the epicenter at Kakarvitta for Kakarvitta outbreak and for Sharanamnati Outbreak at Mahendra Lower Secondary School at Panthapada, located inside the infected zone.


Influenza virus type A was also diagnosed by National Animal Disease Investigation Laboratory, Tripureshwor at Pathamari VDC-5 of Jhapa district where Stamping Out Operation was conducted in Patches (in selected small area). The teams deployed to operate in this area were called Problem Response Team (PRT). This outbreak However was not declared by government of Nepal.

The map below shows the outbreak area of bird flu in jhapa district and the table below shows deatils of total stamping out at kakarvita outbreak of HPAI.