While the total commitment is 35.15 million dollars, actually only 2.51 million dollars was disbursed, says a status report prepared at the ministerial conference on highly pathogenic avian influenza that concluded here on Thursday. While the conference has prepared a roadmap for the government to act on any future epidemic, experts are worried about not knowing enough about threats posed by various strains of H5N1 virus that are currently in circulation in India. The highly pathogenic avian influenza has surfaced twice in the last two years. On both occasions, it was Quingshai strain. But their genetic make-ups were slightly different from each other, which leaves open the possibility of having more strains .

“If there are many strains, there is always a possibility of natural re-assortment, which can make the virus virulent. There is no evidence at the moment but we know too little to have any clear idea,” Dr Mohinder S Oberoi, the sub-regional manager at the SAARC centre for trans-boundary animal disease at Kathmandu told Deccan Herald.  Dr Bernard Vallat who heads the Paris-based World Organisation on Animal Health said that almost 100 strains of the virus are in circulation.