Bird flu in West Bengal cost AP poultry Rs 210 cr

Hyderabad, Mar 5 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development Minister M Budda Prasad today said the state Poultry Federation had suffered an estimated loss of Rs 210 crore, from January 15 to February 15, due to bird flu outbreak in West Bengal.

Replying to a question by opposition members P Raghunath Reddy and D Veerabhadra Rao of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in the Legislative Council, Mr Prasad said the total loss to the state's poultry industry was Rs 700 crore, from February 19, 2006, to April, due to the outbreak of avian flu in Maharashtra.

Stating that the government was taking steps to establish disease diagnostic labs at Hyderabad and Vijayawada, he said the recent diagnostic reports did not indicate the presence of H5N1 virus in the state.

The government was taking all precautionary bio-security measures to prevent the entry of the virus into the state, Mr Prasad said, ruling out the possibility of bird flu outbreak in the state as it was not importing any poultry products from other states.

UNI AP VA ARB HT1652