India free from Avian Influenza, informs OIE

New Delhi, Aug 12: India has declared that it is an Avian Influenza-free country now and has sent a report in this regard to the Office of International des Epizooties (OIE) (World Orgnisation of Animal Health) yesterday.

On February 18, 2006, India's Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries had notified the OIE of an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza [HPAI(H5N1)] in Navapur and Uchchal area of the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Further outbreaks were notified in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra with spillover into the adjoining part of Madhya Pradesh.

The last outbreak was detected on April 18, 2006 in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra and there has been no further outbreak of Avian Influenza in India after that.

The Government had initiated control and containment measures immediately in all affected areas. The control measures adopted included stamping out of entire poultry including destruction of eggs, feed, litter and other consumables and infected materials in a radius of 10 km around each outbreak location, restrictions on movement of poultry/poultry products and personnel to and from the area of outbreak, disinfection and cleaning up of the infected premises.

Final culling operations were completed on April 27, 2006.

Following the last outbreak reported, final cleaning and disinfection process was completed on May 7, 2006. All the measures adopted helped in preventing spread of the disease.

The Government had paid compensation to all the poultry owners whose birds were killed in operations. It had also released a financial relief package as part of measures for the poultry industry, an official release here said.

Article 2 7 12 4 of the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code (2005) states that a country may regain its status as an avian influenza-free country three months after a stamping-out policy (including disinfection of all affected establishments) is applied, providing that surveillance in accordance with Appendix 3.8.9 has been carried out during that three-month period.

Surveillence for H5N1 (clinical, virological and serological) was carried out in a 15-km radius of the affected area which was also continued and carried out over the rest of the country.

Nearly 67,000 samples have been tested by High Security Disease Laboratory (HSDL), Bhopal since first outbreak in February, 2006. All samples collected from the outbreak areas in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat have been tested.

Surveillance around the areas of outbreaks since completion of operation (including culling, disinfection and clean up) and surveillance in the rest of the country has shown no evidence of the presence of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, the release added.

UNI