No case of bird flu in HP, says government

Shimla, Mar 31 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Animal Husbandry Minister Harsh Mahajan today asserted that no case of bird flu has been reported in the state and said the government was alive to the concerns of the opposition members over the issue.

Replying to a calling attention motion moved by Jai Ram Thakur (BJP) in the assembly here, he said no case of bird flu has been reported from anywhere from about 7.64 lakh poultry population in the state.

Mr. Mahajan said the state government had formed a committee under the chairmanship of the chief secretary at the state level and deputy commissioners at the district level to meet and review the situation.

A Rapid Response Team (RRT) and also been constituted to meet any eventuality and 1,885 blood sample collected from all over the state since the reports of the poured from other parts of the country most of the samples tested negative.

He said two cases of mass slaughter of poultry in Hamirpur district were reported in a section of the press recently and both had nothing to do with the bird flu.

The culling of poultry in first case was due to excess expenditure on them by the owner with little or no returns, he said.

The Animal Husbandry Minister said since sale of chickens was down due to the scare of bird flu in the country, the owner thought it was better to slaughter them instead of feeding them, while in the second case the birds were suffering from a protozone disease.

UNI AS HS MSJ RAI1813