Bird flu control room set up to take stock of situation

New Delhi, Jan 06: After confirmation of bird flu in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh & Kerala, Dept of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Govt of India has set up a control room in New Delhi to take stock on a daily basis of preventive & control measures undertaken by State authorities.

Culling of chickens and ducks began in parts of Kerala on Tuesday to contain the spread of avian influenza, or H5N8, as 2,000 migratory birds were found dead in Himachal Pradesh, and several hundred birds in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

In Haryana, over four lakh poultry birds have died at 20 farms in Haryana''s Panchkula district in the past 10 days, officials said on Tuesday. A team of experts from Jalandhar-based Regional Disease Diagnosis Laboratory has collected samples of birds at poultry farms, they said. Haryana''s Animal Husbandry Department has issued an advisory regarding poultry products.

After bird flu was confirmed in samples of carcasses sent from Jhalawar, avian influenza subtype H5N8, which experts said is less infectious than H5N1 virus, has been detected in Rajasthan''s Kota and Baran districts.

The state on Tuesday reported deaths of 200 more birds, officials said. They said the number of birds which died in Rajasthan in the recent days reached 625 on Tuesday morning, amid an outbreak of bird flu. The fatalities were reported in 16 of the 33 districts of Rajasthan.