Bird flu: Culling at Kerang to begin from tomorrow

Khurda: After identification of bird flu spread at Kerang village in Khurda, the district administration will began its culling drive from tomorrow. As many as 10 teams have been constituted by the administration to conduct a survey in the area.

According to sources, the administration is keeping a close watch on the flu spread in a radius of 10 km from Kerang and special provisions have been made for treatment at Khurda Hospital, Capital hospital in Bhubaneswar and SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.

In the past three days, hundreds of fowls, ducks, chickens, pigeons and other bird species died in the area spreading panic amongst locals. The Animal Husbandry department then collected samples of dead birds and sent them for testing in Bhopal. Amongst the samples sent, bird flu virus was found in 5 chickens and 4 crows.

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“On December 23, we had sent the samples to Bhopal for testing and on December 25 we received the test results which revealed that the samples were bird flu positive. There are certain guidelines which have been laid down by the government of India and we have to follow them,” said Khurda Collector, Niranjan Sahoo.

Earlier in 2012, around 40,000 chickens were culled and 62,000 eggs destroyed on account of a bird flu outbreak.