Red alert in bird flu-hit Tripura

Agartala, Apr 10 : The Tripura Government has announced a state of red alert after reports of bird flu surfaced in two other districts of the State.

Culling operations are already on in Dhalai District.

A high level meeting chaired by Commissioner of State Animal Resource Development, V Venkateswarlu on Wednesday decided that veterinary doctors would camp in Khowai, Sadar and Sonamura sub-divisions of West Tripura district and in Belonia sub-division of South Tripura district from Thursday.

Poultry import from outside, including Bangladesh, has been prohibited, official sources said.

About 200 poultry and birds have died in Neharnagar of Belonia sub-division of South Tripura District during the past week, while a few crows have died at Katlamara in West Tripura District in the past three days.

Veterinary doctors on Wednesday collected samples from the dead birds, which would be sent to the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal on Thursday.

It was not confirmed by the preliminary examinations whether the birds were affected by bird-flu.

The birds might have been infected by pabrine or the Ranikhet Disease, sources said.

Altogether 25,000 birds have been culled in eight bird-flu affected villages in Dhalai District since April 8, when the culling operation started.

A team of doctors from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) has examined 1500 people in the bird-flu affected areas of the district since Tuesday, but no infection was detected, sources said.

ANI