Bird flu containment efforts yield good results
Dr T Damodara Naidu, Director of Animal Husbandry department, on Wednesday stated that the efforts being made by the department to check the spread of bird flu cases were giving fruitful results in the State.
Vijayawada : Dr T Damodara Naidu, Director of Animal Husbandry department, on Wednesday stated that the efforts being made by the department to check the spread of bird flu cases were giving fruitful results in the State.
He announced that the avian flu is restricted to only five villages in four districts. In a press release on Wednesday, he said the department has taken steps to contain the bird flu and no new cases were reported in the State.
He said the bird flu has not spread to humans. He said the farmers and other people depending on the poultry industry were suffering losses due to the spread of news of outbreak of bird flu. He said there were many misconceptions on the consumption of chicken and eggs in the State due to wide publicity in some section of the media.
Damodara Naidu said the Animal Husbandry Department in association with NGOs and other organisations will launch a campaign to dispel misconceptions on the consumption of chicken and eggs.
He said chicken mela and egg mela will be conducted in the State to create awareness on consumption of chicken and eggs. He said there were no restrictions on the transportation of eggs and chicken except from only five villages where the bird flu broke out.
He made it clear that stern action will be taken against the persons who obstruct the transportation of chicken and eggs in the State. He said the transporters and people can lodge a complaint to call centre 0866-2472543 and 9491168699 if they face any problem on transportation of eggs and chicken.
On the other hand, Central team will visit the bird flu affected five villages in the State on Thursday. The officials will visit the villages in East Godavari, West Godavari, Eluru and NTR districts.
He said veterinary doctors and health department officials have several times announced that there was no scope of spreading of the bird flu from birds to human beings and added that there was no such case reported in the State. Poultry industry was suffering loss due to drastic fall of chicken and eggs consumption in the State during the past 10 days. Chicken prices are also falling as buyers are reluctant to purchase after the bird flu broke out in some parts of State. If the same situation continues, the farmers may suffer more losses and traders will lose their livelihood.
