Bird flu confirmed in few more places in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh

New Delhi, Jan 27: The Centre on Wednesday said bird flu has been confirmed in poultry birds in few more places in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh.

So far, the outbreak of bird flu or avian influenza in poultry birds has been confirmed in nine states -- Kerala, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

The disease in other birds such as crows, migratory and wild birds has been confirmed in 12 states.

In a statement, the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying said that bird flu has been confirmed in poultry samples from Nanded, Solapur, Pune, Ahmednagar, Buldhana, Akola, Nashik and Hingoli districts of Maharashtra as well as in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat and Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh.

Further, the viral disease has been confirmed in crows in Rudraprayag Forest Division (Uttarakhand), in Titar in Junagad(Gujarat) and in peacocks in Beed (Maharashtra).

The ministry said control and containment operations are going on in the affected epicentres of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

Surveillance work is continuing at the places where positive results have been reported in other species of birds, excluding poultry, it added.

On compensation to poultry farmers, the ministry said the Maharashtra government has sanctioned a compensation package of Rs 1.3 crore for culling of poultry and other birds, eggs and poultry feed and operational cost of disease control within 1 kilometre radius of the infected area, under the Bird Flu Disease Control Program.

The compensation is paid to those farmers whose poultry birds, eggs and poultry feed are culled/ disposed of by the state as per the action plan. The Centre provides funds to states on a 50:50 sharing basis under a central government scheme.

The ministry said it is taking continuous efforts to generate awareness about the disease through various platforms, including Twitter and Facebook.