Punjab gears up to tackle bird flu

Chandigarh, Jun 21 (UNI) The Punjab government is gearing up to prevent outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in the state with an expanding poultry population.

The government was stockpiling consumables urgently required in case of an outbreak, Punjab Animal Husbandry Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike said at a meeting held here today.

He said Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Rubber Gloves, Plastic and Glass Vails, Sterilised Swabs, Spray pumps, Fogers, Crioboxes and disinfectants would be stockpiled in adequate quantity at Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (RDDL) at Jalandhar.

The laboratory had received 17,000 samples for bird flu testing and all of them were negative, the Minister said.

Samples were being collected from organised poultry farms, backyard poultry and wild life sanctuaries, water bodies and migratory birds which were flocking the regions during September-March.

The Minister said that Punjab, being a border state with a growing poultry population and serving as a corridor for inter-state trade in eggs and live poultry, needed to be more cautions and vigilant.

''Punjab government is fully committed to the welfare of poultry industry in the state,'' he said.

Mr Ranike said that besides Punjab, the RDDL was catering to seven Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Chandigarh and Delhi.

UNI