No fresh cases of Bird Flu detected in Tripura: Minister

Agartala, Apr 17 (UNI) The Tripura government is continuing the surveillance operations throughout the state even though no fresh cases of Bird Flu have been detected after conclusion of the culling operations in Kamalpur subdivision of Dhallai district yesterday.

This was stated by Tripura Animal Resource Minister Aghor Debbarma at a press meet at the state secretariat here today. He said after culling of nearly 40,000 birds in Kamalpur, no fresh cases of Avian Influenza have been reported from any part of the state.

''The Animal Resource Department (ARD) has sent blood samples collected from different areas of the state to the High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory in Bhopal and tests on all the blood samples were shown negative,'' Mr Debbarma said.

However, even though the samples were negative, the ARD was keeping a close watch on the situation and the ban imposed on the movement of poultry products will be in place till further orders, the Animal Resource Minister informed.

ARD Director Ashish Roy Barman said ten surveillance teams were monitoring the situation and people had been asked to inform the authorities about any ''unnatural deaths'' of birds.

Tripura is the second state in the Northeast after Manipur to register the outbreak of the H5N1 virus.

The state government had, so far, disbursed compensation of Rs 16 lakh to the poultry farm owners, whose birds had been culled, besides Rs 50 lakh for tackling the disease, which was confirmed in the state on April 8.

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