Dead birds in tank create flutter

Bird flu scare

Central team cautions villagers

Hyderabad: A Central team of Health department on Thursday cautioned the people of Thorrur village against possibility of the H5N1 infection spreading to the people who are living in the areas that are affected by bird flu. A team of four officials from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) led by Dr S K Jain, visited the farms and spoke to the owners. Although infection from poultry birds to humans is not a definite possibility, the Central team warned the villagers not to take any chance. The Central team held a meeting with local officials at the village panchayat office to ascertain the preventive measures that were in place.

Apart from supply of Tamiflu doses to villagers, the Health and Medical department officials asked them to wear protective masks by state health department officials. But surprisingly, the workers who are culling the birds have not been given the protective gear. All that they have been provided are masks which are not being replaced on daily basis. According to Thorrur villagers, thousands of healthy birds were culled. Explaining this aspect, a senior official of Animal Husbandry Directorate said: “Most of the 1.45 lakh birds to be culled are healthy birds only. But the Central norms demand such a course of action to prevent spread of Avian Influenza infection”.

District administration has sounded high alerted in the district following the confirmation of bird flu in Ranga Reddy and Hyderabad districts. Rumours that about 200 birds died of H5N1virus were dumped in a tank behind Vemulawada Rajarajeshwara Swamy temple on Wednesday shocked the officials.Animal husbandry department officials on Thursday fished out two birds from the tank and sent samples to Veterinary Biological Research Institute (VBRI), Hyderabad, for further examination.

They are also conducting post-mortem for the birds at Animal Diseased Dispensation Laboratory, Karimnagar. Though no H5N1positive case has been reported in the district so far, Animal Husbandry department has begun taking precautionary measures to prevent the spread of virus. Joint director, Animal Husbandry department, Dr S Ramchander on Thursday met representatives of district poultry federation and National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) and asked them to inform the district administration immediately if they found any case of H5N1 virus inflection.

Stating that all precautionary measures have been taken, Ramchander said they had already alerted poultry farm owners and chicken vendors in the wake of the confirmation of bird flu in the state. When asked about dumping of dead birds in Vemulawada, the JD said they had collected two birds from the tank and sent samples to VBRI because it is not possible to detect H5N1 virus in the district level laboratory. They were also conducting post-mortem on birds at ADDL, Karimnagar, he informed.

“It is a routine practice to collect samples regularly from poultry farms and conduct chemical examination. In the wake of H5N1 detection, samples have been collected from chicken centres too,” he said. Refusing the possibility of bird flu spreading in the district, Dr Ramchander informed that virus usually spreads from one place to another through migratory birds.

There was no chance of brining birds from outside as Karimnagar has high density of poultry farms, he said.Some miscreants might have dumped dead birds in the tank with an ulterior motive to reduce the price of chicken, JD observed and said that there was no need to worry unless there were unusual deaths of birds.