Ban on entry of chicken, eggs to continue in J

Srinagar, Mar 5 (UNI) The Jammu and Kashmir government has said the ban on entry of poultry and poultry products into the state will continue till the bird flu situation improves across the country.

The state administration said the ban, imposed on February 19 in the wake of outbreak of the deadly avian influenza in Maharashtra and Gujarat, would be lifted once it was fully satisfied that the bird flu situation improved across the country.

At a high-level meeting here last evening, Animal and Sheep Husbandry Minister Taj Mohi-ud-Din said as long as the threat of the deadly H5N1 virus persisted in the country, the ban on entry of poultry and poultry products would continue.

The Minister also took stock of the situation and arrangements made to meet the challenges thrown by the outbreak of the deadly disease in some parts of the country.

He stressed the need for uninterrupted surveillance in all the regions and urged the officials not to show any slackness in their vigilance over poultry and migratory bird population in the state.

Animal and Sheep Husbandry Commissioner-cum-Secretary Dr Muhammad Deen said that as many as 1257 samples of sera, cloacal smears, fecal and other morbid material collected in Kashmir have been sent to the High Security Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratories, Bhopal.

However, he said none of the samples had tested positive for the deadly bird flu disease.

Dr Deen expressed satisfaction over the status reports on the health of poultry population in the Valley.

He said instructions had been given to field agencies that strict vigil be maintained on the poultry population in villages along the Line of Control (LoC) and the international border and the field teams will regularly collect samples for testing.

A close watch was being maintained on poultry population in the villages lying in close proximity to the wetlands as these were more exposed to the risk of contracting the infection from migratory birds, he added.

The Jammu and Kashmir government had earlier rejected the Centre's demand to lift the ban on entry of chicken and eggs into the state.

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